Halim - Dreamer
by Mini Goat
Summary: Unplanned? Sam doesn't even know how it happened seeing as she hasn't had a lover in years
1. Never Let Go

**_AN:_**_ So this basically wrote itself. Repeatedly, Jack and Sam resisted my attempts to get them into bed together or have certain talks. People showed up in the story that I had no intention of involving. People did things I wasn't expecting and said stuff that I did not plan but was very 'them' regardless. Look, I don't know where it came from but I ran with it so yah._

**Halim - Dreamer**

**Chapter 1 – Never Let Go**

Jack looked at his 2IC in concern. She was unusually lacking in alacrity today. Arguably, she worked long hours and might have slept in her lab last night again. He was trying to break her of this but short of carrying her to his berth and tucking her in himself he wasn't sure what to do about her grinding herself to a nub, so he made sure at least she was fed periodically, and staying later so he could make sure she slept in an actual bed as frequently as possible by ordering her to go home.

Sometimes Jack just didn't care how that looked at all but he knew she did so he had to remind himself almost daily that it didn't matter what he wanted. She'd put it in a room and locked it inside and it was up to her to decide when it was time to open that door again not him. Not his call. Perhaps if she'd been willing to talk about it, he'd have told her he'd wait for her. He would anyway. As things stood though…

"Carter," he said in concern, "You all right? You look a little…" He held his hand up level and wiggled it.

"I'm fine." She snapped. "Sir."

"Ok…" He said, putting his hands up in supplication and continued walking. "I want you to take last watch tonight."

"Coddling me sir?" she snapped at him again. The words were respectful but the tone was not.

"Throttle back Major. You've been working long hours and it's my job to make sure my team is operational ready." He told her blandly. Whatever was eating at her the last thing he wanted to do was bicker in front of Teal'c and Daniel. Not that they hadn't bickered in the past but a scouting mission to some ruins for Danny to examine wasn't the place for it since neither could grab their car keys and just leave. Come to think of it, he hadn't bickered with her in a really long time until this week. He was going to recommend some down time and a team night when they got back. Sam was clearly working way too hard. They had reached their destination and Sam started unloading her pack.

"Yes Sir." She said in a snippy tone and went back to her work.

Jack scratched absently at the edge of his jaw trying to figure out what was eating at her. They hadn't had any particularly awful missions lately and he'd gone out of his way to not openly flirt with her on base so it probably wasn't anything he'd specifically done lately. Still, something was bugging her and she felt she could take it out on him at least subconsciously so clearly it was something she couldn't address directly. He wondered if Hammond had canned one of her doohickey projects or shipped it out but she would have said something, wouldn't she? So if she wasn't mad at himself or George who else might she be mad at? Jake? Had dad sent her a message that she was angry about?

Jack drew his tongue along his teeth thoughtfully. He'd ask Daniel.

Jack wandered over to Danny's pile of rocks. "Daniel." He said, by way of greeting.

"Jack." Daniel replied absently while he took some notes.

Jack glanced around to make sure Sam was out of ear shot. "Has ah, has Carter been short with you lately?"

"Not that I noticed why?" Daniel said, after considering for a moment and going back to his work.

"Great. Just me then." Jack said under his breath. "Ok. Thanks. Just wondering."

"Is she ok?" Daniel asked him concerned.

"Probably just tired. I'm going to put in for some down time and we'll have a team night when we get back." Jack said thoughtfully. "Might make a weekend of it."

"Good idea Jack." Daniel agreed absently nodding.

He supposed he could ask Teal'c but the most likely response he'd get would vary from too cryptic to decipher without a few beers in him or an admonishment to go ask Sam himself why she was mad. He wasn't even sure if he'd describe her mood as angry anyway. She just seemed tired and moody and unfocused. It wasn't specifically affecting her work yet and probably no one but him would have even noticed.

And that was the real problem, wasn't it? Because if she was just his subordinate officer, he probably wouldn't have noticed either but because his heart had other plans for their relationship than his head ought to, he'd learned to force himself to only think of her as his teammate and close friend, but it didn't stop him from noticing subtle changes in her behavior others would miss.

Jack scanned his half of the perimeter, Teal'c had the west side of the camp. Sam was taking soil samples around the ruins Daniel was taking pictures of and examining.

No, if Sam was only his teammate, he'd ignore that something was eating at her and she looked over tired and have called her on her insubordination a few moments ago. Unfortunately what he'd wanted to do was draw her into a hug, hold her close and get her to talk to him about it. Possibly at home he could even have pulled that one off, as her friend. They were at work thought and his instincts were bordering on fraternization violations. And he didn't care about those regs even a little but Sam did and he cared how she felt about these things even if they made it extremely difficult for him to cope some days.

The day wore on and Teal'c started warming up MREs into something that vaguely resembled a meal.

Jack did one last visual sweep and sat down with the others. Sam had turned her nose up at Teal'c's meal and was eating a protein bar. Jack gave her an enquiring look and she just shook her head mutely. Jack shrugged. He'd let Janet know in case she was coming down with something. An even better reason to have the team take some down time.

"Is the food not to your satisfaction Major Carter?" Teal'c asked Sam in concern.

"No, it's fine Teal'c. I'm just not very hungry." But Jack and Teal'c could both see she was lying. She'd gotten one whiff of the meal, had frowned and dug around for a bar and a bottled water. Sam usually ate what was put in front of her even if it was fairly repellent. Product of eating one too many meals in a mess hall as a kid he supposed.

Jack frowned but said nothing though Daniel caught his eye and shifted them to Sam, silently asking him if he'd noticed this. Jack gave an imperceptible nod that he was on it.

Sam was noticeably flagging so much that she didn't even notice their silent conversation right in front of her.

That's not normal. Jack decided. Nothing about this was normal. He had to mentally restrain himself from getting up and pressing his lips to her forehead to check her temperature. He was putting serious consideration into closing up camp and going right back through the gate to have Janet do a full physical on Sam to find out what exactly was wrong.

Jack started chewing the inside of his cheek and narrowed his eyes behind his sunglasses. He covered his expression by shoveling a large mouthful of Teal'c's MRE concoction in and chewing. Honestly, he wasn't sure why he was bothering. Sam didn't seem to even notice he and Daniel were taking turns watching her out of the corner of their eyes.


	2. Whisper From Your Soul

**Chapter 2 – Whisper From Your Soul**

Sam glowered at her hands in her lap. It was bad enough he'd fussed over her the entire mission but now Jack had gone behind her back and had told Janet he didn't think she was feeling very well and described her behavior over the mission to the CMO as well.

Now Janet was doing full blood work and not letting her leave the infirmary until she knew for sure if something was wrong or not. All because she'd missed some sleep and hadn't been all that polite to her CO.

Jack's head popped around the curtain. "Knock, knock." He said, with cautious cheer.

"Sir." She said tonelessly.

Jack looked like he wanted to snap at her, seemed to think better of it and shoved his hands in his pockets. "Something bothering you Carter?" he asked her mildly.

"I'm fine sir." She said waspishly.

Jack tilted his head and raised his eyebrows, his expression clearly stating he found that difficult to believe. "When you get done here, I want to see you in my office." He told her, a slight frown on his lips and he tried to figure out what was going on. He pulled a hand from his pocket and waved it absently. "I'll leave you alone now." He said with a nod and left.

Sam flopped her upper body back against the pillow on the gurney. That's just great. To top off the day she was going to get reprimanded by her boss. Not that he'd put anything in her file. He never had and she doubted he ever would do so but he would drag her on the carpet for her attitude and try to get out of her why she was so snippy lately.

The problem was she didn't honestly know. It could just be because she's tired but she wasn't usually this moody on a lack of sleep. If anything, usually she got slap happy and she felt like she'd been sleeping more than normal lately. So much so that she'd had really strange dreams the last couple months off an on about being on an Asgard ship but she couldn't remember the events, only that she recognized the style of the vessel. As odd dreams about other planets and spaceships weren't exactly out of the norm for anyone at the SGC, she chalked it up to being over tired.

"Well, they have all your blood work running and at a glance you are a bit anemic. You don't have the flu or any alien viruses so I'm going to send you home for now until the rest of it runs through the labs. There's a bit of a back up with being short staffed this month" Janet told her as she walked in through the curtain. "Is everything ok Sam? Colonel O'Neill said you were moody and off your game while on mission." She asked Sam in concern.

"I'm fine Janet. I'm just not sleeping very well lately."

"Well, you're in luck, the Colonel said something to me about putting in for some down time for the team so you can catch up on your sleep. After you eat something high in iron." She told her with a small smile.

Sam huffed a sigh. "Not like I don't have a ton of work to do."

"I'm sure it can wait a couple days while you get some rest. It's not like anyone is trapped off-world." She reminded Sam who blushed a little. Janet had known why Sam had spent three months killing herself rewriting the laws of physics and it wasn't because her CO was good at his job.

They had progressed from separately realizing how they felt to being overtly flirtatious towards one another when no one was around to notice. But then the armband incident had happened and Janet hadn't seemed shocked by either of their admissions that they had feelings for each other though neither had said the words they really meant by that. Jack had looked right at her when he'd made his admission and although his words had been ambiguous, his eyes had not been. Her heart had literally done flips in her chest as his eyes held her.

After, she stopped him before he said it. For both their sakes. It wasn't right to make promises to each other that might only hurt them both. Who knew when this war would ever end or if they would both survive it. It just wasn't fair to hold him to such a promise, knowing he deserved to find someone to love that he could be with now. It honestly never even occurred to her that Jack was the sort of man that did not easily fall out of love just because things were complicated.

Janet waited for whatever train of thought was flitting across Sam's face. When she looked up again, Janet smiled. "Get changed and go home, Sam. Get some food and some rest. Doctor's orders. I'll call when the blood work is done"

Sam nodded numbly. She was tired. She'd go hit the showers then see her CO for her chewing out and go crash for a few hours. It wasn't like she couldn't sneak back on base after a couple days of sleep. By the time he noticed it would be too late anyway.

After Janet left to attend to her other patients, Sam threw her BDUs back on and headed for the women's locker room. And thank goodness they had added one so she didn't have to share showers with the guys anymore. Much less likelihood that she'd catch some alien virus and jump her CO again that way. Sam grinned a little. Some of the flirting had progressed to exploratory kissing that if Sam was even slightly honest with herself, was definite proof that their feelings were extremely mutual. They hadn't gone any further than kissing yet though because they were both a bit afraid of the complications and getting caught sleeping with your CO was a one way ticket to a discharge.

Sam sighed as she turned the water on in the showers and waited for it to warm up. She could curl up on the locker room bench right now and go to sleep if she was honest but Jack wanted to see her before she left and she wanted to get her reprimand out of the way. She knew she'd been taking a tone with him on the last mission but been unable to stop herself from doing it.

The odd part about it, she thought as she got under the now steaming water, was that when she was around him he irked her but the moment he was out of sight she missed him and found herself daydreaming about the look in his eyes when he said he cared about her more than he was supposed to. Sam shook her head, trying to figure out why her brain didn't seem to want to settle on a reasonable compromise between ripping his clothes off then nailing him on his desk and Holy Hannah, where had _that_ thought come from? Sam shook her head. What was wrong with her lately?

Not that she didn't think about him that way. She did. But she tried to keep those thoughts to the privacy of her own home where she could do something about the physical frustration she felt when she wanted him sexually.

She didn't know why she bothered trying to fool herself either. If he was still single when the war ended, she wasn't going to hesitate to seduce him if he was even remotely still interested. And now she realized she needed to bank that fire and go deal with him then go home and do something about this sudden eruption of lust she was feeling.

Sam shook her head and turned off the shower. She firmed her mouth into a frown and told her body to calm the hell down. At least she wasn't a guy so she didn't have to hide an erection. Hopefully freshly showered she wouldn't smell too much like she was turned on because she could think of few things more awkward than receiving a dressing down while she smelled like lust for the man who was doing so.

She dressed quickly and finger combed her damp hair into place, not really caring as she was going home anyway.


	3. Never Too Early

**Chapter 3 – Never Too Early**

Sam knocked lightly on his office door which was an odd sensation as usually, when he wanted something, he came to her in her lab. Jack had never been one to stand on ceremony.

"Enter." Came his muffled voice from inside.

Sam opened the door and stood at attention in front of his desk. He was reading a report and making notes on his computer and his black rimmed reading glasses served to just make him more appealing in her opinion.

Jack put his work down and looked up at her. "At ease Major." He said and smiled slightly.

"Yes sir." And she had to suppress a yawn.

"I put in for a few days off for SG-1 Carter. You need some rest. That means no sneaking onto base. The security room has strict instructions to report to me if you do." He said, with a slight frown.

"Sir, with all due respect I have projects I need to be-"

"Ah! No Carter. This is an order. You are over tired and something is bothering you. Janet says you are anemic too and agrees you have burned yourself down further than is strictly healthy." And as her expression became mutinous, Jack smiled and got up, grabbing his coat. "Come on, I'll drive you home." He said softly.

"Sir, I'm perfectly capable of driving myself home."

"I know that, but you _are_ very tired and I want you to actually rest. If you don't have your car for a day, you will at least sleep in tomorrow." He gave her a boyish grin. "Come on, I'll buy you a steak first." He offered.

Sam sighed. It wasn't strictly safe to eat dinner with him given her mood and at least he seemed more concerned than angry with her attitude the last couple days. "All right sir." She said softly and gave him a little grin.

Jack's grin broadened. "Got your stuff? Ok, so here's the game plan. We go eat. I take you home. You sleep for as long as you need to and tomorrow night, we have a team night. Teal'c will take you back to base to get your car in a couple days. Deal?"

"All right sir, deal." She agreed and she smiled up at him.

He led her out the door to the elevators and pretended he wasn't discreetly watching her for signs of something more complicated than just general exhaustion.

* * *

On the drive away from the mountain, Sam dozed off almost immediately. Yah, sure you can drive yourself home. And fall asleep at the wheel and skid off the road and then what am I supposed to do without you Samantha? He thought at her as he pulled out his phone to call O'Malley's to place a carry out order.

When he got there, he called them again. "Hey, I'm sitting outside for a carry out order but my girlfriend fell asleep in the car. Is there any way someone could bring out our food? I paid for it over the phone." Jack paused to listen. "Great, thanks. I'm in the green truck by the door." He said quietly and looked at Sam dozing in a slightly curled up position facing him. He couldn't remember the last time he saw her this tired.

A waitress came up to the window of his truck and held up the bag. Jack opened the door to get out and take it. "Thanks. It's been a long day and I hate to wake her." He told the waitress as he nudged his chin towards Sam who didn't even stir when the chilly outside air swirled through the cab.

"No problem sir." The waitress said with a smile that got bigger when he handed her cash in addition to the tip he'd put on the bill. "Have a nice night."

"You too," Jack said, waving and gently closed his truck door and glancing at Sam whose hand was now crossed over her chest and pressing lightly into the seat next to her other shoulder. At least she'd moved a little but only to settle in more it seemed.

* * *

Jack shut off the engine in her driveway. "Sam, Sweetie, wakey wakey." He told her, gently nudging her shoulder and eliciting minimal response. Jack frowned. Ok, this was getting concerning, he decided. "Carter!" he barked and shook he shoulder.

Sam startled awake and blinked at him in confusion.

"I can't carry you and the food Carter." He told her gruffly to cover his concern.

"Oh. Are we home?" She asked, perplexed and looked around.

'I wish', thought Jack. "I got us some take out steaks on the way here. We're at your house. Come on. Let's get you out of the cold and some food in you Sam." His voice was still gruff but it had lost the bark he'd used to wake her up. What he really wanted to do was gather her up in his arms and carry her to bed. He was pretty sure his motive wasn't even about making love to her. She was clearly worn out.

Jack jumped out his door, grabbed the boxes he'd stashed behind his seat and moved around to the passenger door to make sure she got out without stumbling. He already had his keys out so when they got to the door he used his copy to let them in. It felt oddly domestic coming home after a long day at work with some take out to snuggle on the couch noshing on steaks and fries together.

While Jack set the boxes down in the kitchen and grabbed plates, Sam slipped off her shoes and coat and sleepily floated over to the couch to sit down.

Jack decided to cut her steak up for her so she would eat more of it and came out to her out cold on the couch. Jack sighed and set the plates on the coffee table and looked around for the afghan he knew she always had out in her living room. Spotting it on the shelf under the end table, he drew it over her and gently tucked her in.

Just to make sure it was only exhaustion; he brushed her bangs away softly and pressed his lips to the side of her forehead. She didn't seem to be running a fever though so he sat down and ate his meal, quietly observing her.

Half an hour later Jack decided she was down for the count and took her plate to the kitchen to put in a refrigerator container for later. He rinsed both plates and loaded her dishwasher of the couple of things in the sink.

Jack walked back into the living room and looked down at her. He worried at the inside of his cheek with his teeth for a moment then decided leaving her alone when he wasn't sure she wouldn't wake up disoriented and no idea how she got home wasn't a great idea. He headed for the guest room. He was sure there was probably some sleep pants he or Danny had left here previously. He sighed when he looked at the condition of the room. There were boxes on the bed and papers scattered around the room like she'd been looking for something. Jack ran his hand across his temple and jammed his thumb between his eyes.

Oh for crying out loud, he thought and left the room. Whatever she was doing, he didn't want to screw up her system so he headed for the other bedroom. He figured she wouldn't be using it tonight anyway so he stripped out of the BDU pants he'd brought her home in and pulled off his shirt. He folded them neatly and laid them on the dresser before crawling into bed in his shorts on the side that didn't have her clock on the nightstand.

Jack dozed off smiling. Even though it wasn't the pillow she used personally, the room smelled uniquely of the woman he loves and Jack relaxed more deeply than he had in a long time. He could get used to falling asleep this way.

* * *

A few hours later, the bed shifted and Jack felt a soft warm arm wrap around his waist as she pulled herself against him. He wasn't sure how aware she was of what she was doing so he just followed her lead and pulled her gently against him without opening his eyes and dozed back off once she settled.

Some time in the early morning he woke to her gently stroking his chest. Jack frowned confused. "Carter?" he croaked out, cleared his throat a bit and almost yelped when her head nuzzled into his neck. "Sam." He groaned. It was one thing for them to engage in goodnight kisses after a casual dinner out as friends and another to wake up with a sleepy and aggressively affectionate Sam licking his earlobe and her hands wandering- whoa!. "Ah… Sam." He tried again as he tried to inch away from her hands exploring dangerously close to someplace she probably shouldn't be rubbing against seeing as his body was already betraying him.

"Jack." She breathed against his neck and her lips trailed down his jaw.

"Ok, time for me to get up." Jack announced and all but fled to her bathroom where he plopped down on her toilet and scrubbed his hands over his eyes then through his hair. He could still smell her on him and it wasn't helping how his body was acting at all. "Dammit." He muttered to himself.

Jack got up and turned on the shower. He knew a cold one would do a better job but it was October and the last thing he wanted to do was take a cold shower then go out into the crisp Colorado air after. Besides he was going to have to do something about how aroused his body was before he left the bathroom and he didn't want to be cold while he did that either.

Jack got into the shower and stood with his hands flat on the tiles in front of him, letting the warm spray pour down his back, his eyes closed.

Sam slid in behind him silently put her hands on his hips.

"Dammit Carter I should have known you'd pick the lock." He sighed. "Please Sam." He didn't finish his sentence though as he struggled to stop himself from turning and responding to her silent exploration of his body.

Her hands however continued to stroke his body and he clenched one hand in a fist trying to control himself. "Sam." He growled. "If you don't stop what you're doing…"

"What Jack?" she asked him and nibbled on a spot on his back.

Jack turned and pressed her up against the tile, the water sluicing across them as he held her cheek and made her look at him. "Sam, we can't be doing this. I mean, god knows I _want_ to but you and I both know we aren't going to want to stop at just this."

She looked up at him and then closed her eyes, nodding in agreement. "I'm sorry. I don't know why I'm acting this way." She admitted.

"Well, I know _why_ Carter, it's just we really, really can't." He sighed and wrapped his arms around her, cradling her against him for a long moment and ignoring his body's state as he soothed her. Sam wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her face in his shoulder and he was nearly positive some of the hot drops of water on his chest were tears.

They stood that way for a long time, holding each other until the water tank started running out of hot water but oddly both of their bodies relaxed in spite of how closely they were holding each other. Jack turned off the faucet and grabbed them both a towel. After wrapping her gently in one and tying the other to his hips he smiled at her. "C'mon, I'll reheat your steak. We can split it." He told her cheerfully.


	4. Bigger Than Your Fears

**Chapter 4 – Bigger Than Your Fears**

"I'm sorry sir. I shouldn't have followed you in here." She told him.

"Ah, what have we talked about that?" He said, putting up a finger.

In a sing song voice, Sam replied. "If we aren't at work and aren't in uniform, don't call you 'sir'."

"Am I in uniform Carter?" he asked holding out his arms, the towel slipping lower on his hips.

Sam snorted with laughter. "No sir."

"So my name is?" He cupped his hand to his ear.

"Jack." She said, smiling.

"Now bring me my clothes and go put something on. That's… very distracting." He said, waving at her long legs poking out of the bottom of her towel.

Sam grinned at him and left but a few moments later her hand poked back in and placed his clothes on the counter.

* * *

"I really am sorry Jack. I don't know what I was thinking." She told him while he slowly reheated the steak from last night so it wouldn't be overcooked. He'd put her fries in the oven to crisp them back up.

"Carter, quit dwelling on it. I'm not mad at you." He glanced at her over his shoulder. "You weren't yourself Carter. When was the last time I drove you home and you fell asleep in the truck?"

Sam thought for a while.

"At fifteen hundred." He added.

She looked at him a little surprised. She hadn't realized how early she'd fallen asleep.

"You were disoriented and not really awake, that's all." He told her but they both knew he was trying to convince himself more than he was her.

Sam nodded slowly and let it slide. He was willing to give her a pass on acting out on her feelings for him and she wasn't going to turn it down.

"Thank you for buying me dinner last night. I'm sorry I fell asleep on you. It smells delicious."

Jack shrugged dismissively. "You needed the rest. Are you feeling better this morning?"

"Some. Thank you for staying."

"Any time Carter." He said, putting her share of the steak and fries in front of her.

Jack's phone jangled. "O'Neill." He said then paused a long moment discreetly turning slightly away so Sam couldn't read his eyes. "I did… All right, I'm making sure she eats." He listened again. "I will." Jack hung up the phone and sat down.

"Janet has your lab work back. She wants you to drop in today to go over it." He told her, his expression closed.

"Is everything all right?"

"She didn't tell me. Just asked that I bring you in."

"Any particular reason she called you and not me?"

"She figured I might still be here." He lied to her. Janet had called him because she wanted him to bring her in and stick around for support. She hadn't said so but Jack knew her tone and knew it wasn't great news. No sense in scaring Sam though so he hid his expression behind a mouthful of steak. "Eat up, before it gets cold again." He told her.

* * *

Twenty minutes later they left for the mountain and Sam was giving him a guarded look.

"What?" He finally asked her impatiently.

"Sir, what did she really say?"

D'oh. Caught. He shuttered his expression which, as far as Sam's opinion went, was an automatic admission of guilt. "She said she wanted to go over your lab work."

"And that's all?" she asked him skeptically.

"She wanted to make sure you ate and had slept."

Sam snorted in disbelief.

"What do you want me to say Carter? I can't give you information I don't have." He said, his tone aggravated.

"What aren't you telling me sir?" She asked pointedly.

"Carter, if I knew any more, I'd say so. I've never withheld information from you and I never will. She sounded concerned but it's Janet. Concerned could be anything from a snake in the head to an infected splinter." He pointed out.

Sam sighed. It was pretty clear that whatever he thought it was he wasn't going to say so she dropped the matter. She'd find out soon enough anyway she supposed.

"I'm sure it isn't anything Janet can't fix anyway Carter. She cured Teal'c of turning into a bunch of bugs after all." He reminded her.

"All right." She said simply and watched the landscape roll by out the window until they reached base.


	5. Doubt Kills

**Chapter 5 – Doubt Kills**

Jack had dropped Carter off in the infirmary and been promptly shooed out by Janet with a long look that said he'd find out soon enough and to stick around because Sam would need him.

Jack found himself in the briefing room with Daniel and Teal'c. Hammond had paged all three of them to report there and Walter said their base commander would be joining them soon. Jack poured himself a cup of coffee and fiddled with it absently. Something was fluttering nervously in his chest. He trusted his gut. Something big was up.

"Anyone know why we're here?" Daniel asked, poking at the danish next to the coffee.

"I do not Daniel Jackson." Teal'c told him.

"Your guess is as good as any Danny Boy." Jack said, nonchalantly but his gut was doing flip flops. He had a _very_ good idea this had everything to do with his Carter and the longer they cooled their jets in the briefing room the more agitated he was feeling.

Eventually Hammond showed up, poured himself a cup of coffee and sat at the head of the table.

"What's this about sir?" Jack asked having a fairly good idea.

"All in good time Colonel." George told him so Jack went back to aggressively taking apart a pen. He should be up in the infirmary making sure Sam was ok, not down here spinning his wheels waiting. What if she needed him? What if the news was terrible? She could be sitting down there falling apart and he'd been ordered to hang out here doing nothing. Jack scowled.

The familiar click of heals announced the base CMO. "Sorry to keep you waiting gentlemen." Janet said, walking in.

Hammond looked up at her expectantly and she met his eyes and shook her head once almost imperceptibly.

"Where's Carter?" Jack demanded.

"Major Carter has elected not to be present for this conversation. If you could sit please." She told them as she closed the door.

Jack got a sick feeling low in his belly. It took everything in him not to get up and leave to go find her. Instead he sat as ordered but was slowly shredding the top page of the notepad in front of him with a sharp edge of the pen he'd torn apart.

"All right I'm just going to come out and say this. Colonel, thank you for drawing my attention to Major Carter's physical condition. For now, she is barred from gate travel."

"What? Why?" Daniel said in surprise but Jack's gut told him he already knew.

"Because Major Carter is approximately four weeks pregnant Doctor Jackson." She told him giving Jack a sympathetic look.

The faces at the table were a range of shocked to resigned. Jack being the latter.

"Colonel O'Neill, Major Carter claims to not have been sexually active for quite some time so I'd like to pull your mission reports from four weeks ago to see if there is any kind of connection."

"Was Major Carter not on preventative medication to ward off conception?" Teal'c asked her.

"She was but there is no sign of it in her system which means something she came in contact with removed it from her system at some point." Janet admitted.

Jack had gotten up.

"We aren't done here son." George told Jack.

"I am. Doc, I'll get you those records by the end of the day." He told her and left the room.

Everyone stared after him for a moment then looked at Hammond wondering how he'd handle such an obvious display of insubordination.

"Was there anything else Doctor Frasier?" George asked her. He could reprimand Jack but he couldn't blame the younger man. That was his second in command and she'd been compromised in the worst possible way. More importantly George was not unaware of how his second in command felt about his own second in command. If it was him, he'd have probably reacted the same way even if he wasn't in love with the girl the way Jack was.

"She seems otherwise healthy sir. The fetus is developing normally as far as I can tell, it's very early and I can't run DNA tests without risking harming it, of course."

"Understood. If that's all, you are all dismissed." George told them.

Janet, Teal'c and Daniel filed out, leaving George sitting at the table his expression a mix of thoughtful concern.

* * *

"We should go find Sam." Daniel said to the other two.

"It would be better to give O'Neill time to talk to Major Carter first Daniel Jackson."

"I agree with Teal'c, Daniel. Sam was upset enough not to want to tell you guys herself. She'll need all of you soon but it would be best if you let the Colonel talk to her first." She gave Daniel a very pointed look until comprehension dawned on his face.

"Unscheduled wormhole activation." Walter's familiar voice announced over the PA. All three of them backtracked to the operations room.

"It's the Tok'ra." Walter told them and Teal'c and Janet exchanged a significant look. Sure enough Jacob Carter walked through the puddle.

"Did they say what they wanted?" Daniel asked Walter.

"No sir." Walter admitted.

"Great." He sighed. "I guess I'll handle this one. You guys should probably go find Sam and Jack and warn them." Daniel doubted either of them had been listening to the PA over the last ten minutes.

Janet nodded and left the room. Teal'c followed her after exchanging looks with Daniel.

* * *

He found her in the woman's locker room sitting in the dark on the bench with her knees pulled up to her chin and her arms wrapped around her legs. Crying silently.

Jack didn't say anything. He just sat down behind her. "C'mer." He said gently and tugged at her sleeve once.

Sam turned and buried herself in his chest and started sobbing.

Jack closed his eyes and held her, one hand gently rubbing circles on her back until she worked it out of her system. When she'd quieted some he pulled her legs over his lap. "Jeeze Carter, if you'd just wanted a one night stand…" he joked gently which earned him a hiccupped humorless laugh.

"Sir, I swear I haven't been with anyone in years. Not since…" And she trailed off because she didn't have to finish. They both knew which particular incident she spoke of. He hadn't either but that was a different conversation.

"I know Carter. This isn't your fault. Someone did something to you Carter, and when I find out who, I'm going to beat their ass into the dirt." He said with sudden savagery.

"Thank you sir." She told him with genuine appreciation. It meant a lot that he wanted to avenge her honor. "This is the woman's locker room."

"I know that." He said defensively.

"Sir." She said, almost chuckling.

"You're sure you're ok now?" He asked her, tilting her chin up to look at him.

"I'm sure." She said with a soft smile.

"All right. I'm going to go change into my civvies and then I'll be right outside the door, ok?"

"You don't need to drive me home again sir."

"Who says I'm offering?" He said in an innocent tone as she lowered her legs from his lap.

"You weren't?" Her tone was amused yet suspicious.

"I will if you want me to but I was planning on following you home so we could talk about your options away from base." He admitted. There were some things they needed to say that he didn't want recorded.

"All right."

Jack nodded curtly as he got up. "I'll be right back. Go wash your face. You don't want the sign in guards to think I made you cry, do you?"

Sam gave him a soft chuckle and a slight smile. "No sir." She agreed and he left feeling he'd done what he could for now to get her past the initial shock.

* * *

"Daniel, I'd expected to be greeted by Sam or at least Jack." Jacob told him.

"Yah, about that. We've run into a little bit of a snag." Daniel admitted.

"What kind of a snag? Are they all right?"

"Oh, well, yah, I suppose so." Daniel raked a hand through his hair as they walked out of the Gate room together.

"So what's the snag?"

"Well, Sam should probably tell you this herself but as she didn't even want to tell us herself, I don't see why I shouldn't deliver this information now."

"Daniel, if you've got something to say, spit it out." Jacob told him in a warning tone.

"Yah, well, you see, Sam… Sam is pregnant Jacob."

"Pregnant? Who the hell is the father?" He demanded and wondered how this happened given as far as he knew his daughter wasn't seeing anyone right now as she wasn't strictly over her feelings for her commanding officer. A situation he pretended he knew nothing about because it wasn't any of his business.

"Well, see that's just it. We don't know." Daniel admitted.

"Where is he?"

"Er, who?" Daniel asked confused.

"Never mind. I'll find him myself." Jake said and stalked off.

Daniel suddenly realized who Jake thought the father might be and did not envy his best friend the next half hour of his life.

* * *

"Oh hey Dad, how's it- "

"You son of a bitch!" Jack barely had time to brace himself before a fist slammed into his jaw.

Jack reeled and sat down hard on the locker room bench, rubbing his jaw. "Ow."

Jacob glared down at him. "You're her CO, you asshole!"

"Hey, wait a minute!" Jack said, putting up his hands but not strictly defending himself. Jake must have been told and jumped to what Jack had to admit was a really likely conclusion given this morning's events.

Jake's head tilted down and back up again with a flash of gold eyes. "My apologies Colonel. Jacob is very upset."

"I noticed." Jack told her. "And I know what he's thinking but I'm not the father. Someone did this to her and we need to find out who and why." His voice took on an angry note as he spoke. Jack was just as furious as Jacob was. He was going to find out who did this to his Carter and they were going to pay.

"You really aren't the father?" Suddenly it was Jacob talking to him again.

"No dad. If I was, I'd have told you about it before she got pregnant. We don't know how it happened yet but I'm going to find out."

Jacob nodded thoughtfully. "Where is she now?"

"In the woman's locker room waiting for me to get changed. I was going to follow her home and talk to her privately about it, see if I could jog her memory for clues about how, and when it might have happened." He told Sam's father.

"I'll come too."

"Is that really such a great idea? What if she had a one night stand and doesn't want to talk about it with her father?"

"Oh, and you think she'd talk to the man she's in love with about doing that, do you?" Jake asked pointedly.

"Dad." Jack said to him in warning.

"Tell me I'm wrong."

Jack looked away. He couldn't but he knew Sam trusted him to understand if she had.

"That's what I thought. Sorry about punching you."

"It's ok. Not the first time." And if you had any idea how much I'd almost earned it after this morning dad, you'd punch me again. He thought.


	6. A Wish Your Heart Makes

**Chapter 6 – A Wish Your Heart Makes**

In the end, Daniel and Teal'c had followed them as well. Jack had taken Jake so Sam could think on the way home. Plus Jack didn't want Jake giving her the third degree about the father without the rest of them there to make sure he didn't cross a line and make her cry again.

Jack had been the only one not shocked that Sam was pregnant. She acted pregnant. Jack hadn't put the clues together on his own because it wasn't on his radar. As far as he knew she was using those shots Janet had ordered for all the women on base that wanted them and every woman traveling off-world. But Jack had been a father and Sam's behavior was very consistent with pregnancy. Add in that he'd noticed her personal smell had changed slightly which he'd noticed in the shower and not particularly thought about as he'd had other things on his mind at the time and Jack wasn't shocked.

He bet Teal'c probably wasn't either. He'd been watching Sam with concern for the last couple weeks as though he suspected something that wasn't his place to point out.

When they got to her place, Jack was going to toss Teal'c the keys and have him take Jake and Daniel to go get some take out for them. He needed to talk to Carter alone.

"Dad…" he started to say to the older man.

Jake just shook his head though. "You want to talk to her alone, don't you?" He said as though he'd read Jack's mind.

"Go with the guys to get some take out for everyone. Please." He added at the end, his jaw slightly clenched.

"All right. This seems like something you two need to work out on your own anyway. I wouldn't want my father-in-law sticking his nose into my love life either."

"Dad, you don't have a love life and it's not like Carter and I are married." Jack choked out.

"You have no idea what I do with my time away from you." He told Jack with a smirk just for the enjoyment of watching the man who was most likely going to marry his daughter some day squirm uncomfortably. "And it's just an example Jack. I know how you feel about each other. I doubt that just went away simply because my daughter wants to be stubborn."

Jack nodded slowly in agreement. No. No it had not.

"I'll dither over what I want to order. I'm old. No one will even argue with me about it." Jake told Jack in amusement.

"I appreciate it."

"Whatever you two decided to do about this, just keep me in the loop. You know I don't like surprises."

"Well, at your age I could understand." Jack chuckled at the dirty look Jacob gave him.

* * *

Jack and Jacob had managed to convince the other two to go with Jacob to pick up Chinese food. Jack was sitting on the couch with Sam curled on his chest, eyes closed, arms around his middle.

"Did you and Dad conspire for us to have a private conversation?" She finally asked him.

"That sounds pretty far-fetched, doncha think?" He asked her.

She lifted her head from his brown sweater and looked him in the eyes. "You did, didn't you?" She accused.

"Dad thought you and I might need some time to talk privately first." Jack admitted.

"And why exactly did my father agree to this?"

"It was his idea." Jack hedged.

She looked at him and was fairly certain that he was at least mostly telling the truth. "All right. What are we going to talk about?"

"You know I won't judge you right?"

"Jack, I really didn't sleep with anyone. I'd have told you earlier if I had."

"All right. We need to figure out how this happened then." He said, gently stroking her arm.

Sam sighed. "I don't even know where to start looking other than going over our missions from four weeks ago."

"We'll start there first thing tomorrow morning. What did Janet tell you?"

"Just that as far as she can see there's no sign of my depo shot in my system, that I'm about four weeks along give or take a day or two, and that as far as she can tell the pregnancy is progressing normally."

He looked at her like he was trying to decide how to word this without upsetting her.

"Just spit it out Jack." She told him finally.

"Well, I was wondering…"

"If I planned to keep it?"

"Yah. That." He admitted.

"Honestly? I haven't decided." She told him, biting her lip.

"Well, you have a few weeks to decide what to do."

She nodded and closed her eyes. Her mom had been Catholic and she'd been raised that abortion was wrong but this wasn't a normal pregnancy. She had no idea who the father might be or if he was even human. "Jack, I don't know what to do. This could be a terrible idea but what if I kept the baby?"

"You know I'll support you no matter what decision you make Carter." He told her honestly. It wasn't his call. Even if it was he'd struggle to justify terminating the pregnancy too. She had about eight more weeks to make a decision anyway. Hopefully they might have some answers for her by then.

If it was human or near human he doubted there would be any kind of issue as long as she was monitored closely. If it wasn't, Jack had no idea how she'd feel about it. A noticeably not human baby was going to be hard to explain and he had a feeling the NID might step in and force her to terminate the pregnancy against her will or worse, force her to move off-world and remain that way. Jack thought about that for a moment and decided if for any reason they did that to her, he'd go with her even if it meant going AWOL. Most likely the Tok'ra would take them in until they found a place to settle. The Tollan remnant owed them some favors for instance. Jake would understand his motives. Hell, Dad would probably beat the hell out of him again if he didn't.

The sound of Jack's truck pulling back into the driveway broke the mood and Sam sat up, squeezed his hand once in thank you and acted like they hadn't been cuddling on the couch like the lovers they both regretted not being.


	7. Ignore Your Fears

**Chapter 7 – Ignore Your Fears**

"All right, so we went to three planets within the time range but Jack, none of them had the kind of technology required to pull off an advanced medical procedure like artificial insemination as far as we can tell." Daniel told him. "P7V-148 was still in the stone age. P11-X14 had simple technology but nothing above our middle ages and P98-L27 was nearly uninhabited and the people there clearly weren't advanced."

"So we're back to square one." Jack said, frowning.

"Well, not entirely sir. We now know several things that are not factors."

"That's not super helpful Carter. There could be thousands of other possibilities."

Sam sighed. There really could, she thought and absently rubbed her stomach without really noticing. "I know sir but we had to start somewhere." She told him just as frustrated as he was.

"I've been wracking my brain trying to think of anyone who might be running unsanctioned experiments Sam, and I can't come up with anything either and even if I did, how would they have even gotten to you to do one in the first place." Jacob told them. He'd had some business with George that was discussed behind closed doors and had been scheduled to leave but given the circumstances, the Tok'ra high council agreed it was important that they find out who did this in case she wasn't the only person being targeted.

Jake had politely not asked her what she planned to do about the pregnancy. He had his own private thoughts about what she ought to do but much of that depended greatly on who the father turned out to be. If it was a Goa'uld, he very much doubted she'd carry the pregnancy to term even if it was healthy. Most of the societies with the technology level to perform such a feat were highly unlikely to do so on what they considered a primitive society in the first place. Only the Asgard and Tok'ra regarded the Tau'ri as underdeveloped rather than primitive.

Either way that narrowed the field but still left many possible options as to who might have done this to his daughter. If Jack didn't kill whoever did it, Jake might take a whack at whoever it was himself. Someone had hurt his little girl. Violated her by impregnating her without her consent. Possibly put further strain on her relationship with the first man she cared about that Jacob actually approved of, though he'd never willingly admit that to Jack or Sam.

Jacob tapped his pen on the table in agitation until he noticed several sets of eyes boring into him.

"Something bothering you dad?" Jack asked mildly.

Jacob narrowed his eyes. How could he be so calm? He was about to say something when Selmak reminded him that perhaps Jack was calm so Sam would stay calm. Jacob closed his mouth and asked her what she meant by that.

'_Think about it dear. If Jack starts getting angry and losing his cool, Samantha is going to get upset. Being upset isn't good for the baby. Jack is only staying calm for her.'_

_'Fine, fine'_, he thought at her, '_But I need to go for a walk because I can't stay calm much longer_'. He admitted to his symbiote.

_'That's a very good idea. Let's go for a walk'. _Jacob huffed. "I need some air. I'll be back in a bit." He told them and left the briefing room where they had been looking through the files together for the third day in a row.

"I shall accompany him." Teal'c announced in silent agreement with Jack that neither Carter should be left alone right now.

"Is he all right?" Daniel asked Sam and Jack of Jacob.

"He's probably just mad that we aren't making progress yet." Jack suggested.

"I can't say I blame him. I'm getting pretty angry about it myself." Sam admitted.

"We'll figure out who did this to you, Sam." Jack told her. His jaw set and his eyes firm. He'd keep looking until he found the answer.

Sam nodded and looked away, a lump forming suddenly in her throat. Stupid hormones, she thought savagely.

Long brown fingers briefly brushed hers and he gave her an understanding look. That just made it worse though and she bit her lip to stop the tears gathering at the corners of her eyes.

"Daniel, why don't you go grab us some snacks. Something healthy for Carter." He reminded the sandy haired man.

Realizing what Jack was doing he went along with it. "Sure, Jack. I'll be back in a few." And left the room, nudging the door mostly closed behind him intentionally.

Jack pulled a hankie out of a pocket and handed it to Sam without a word.

She looked at him mystified.

"Hormones." He told her and gave her an amused wink which made her sigh and laugh a watery little chuckle.

"Thanks." She told him dabbing at her eyes. "I cry over the stupidest things now. Yesterday there was a commercial for those cheesy mass produced infinity pendants and I burst into tears." She admitted.

"Did you want one?" he teased her.

"God no." she said laughing and dabbed at her eyes again. "Someone should have warned me about this part."

"It should pass in… oh, about eighteen years or so." He told her ruefully.

She sighed and took his hand to squeeze it. "I'm sorry. This must be reminding you of a lot."

"It does, but not really in a bad way. I still miss him but…"

She knew what he meant and squeezed his hand again. There weren't any words that needed to be said.

She started to hand him back his hankie but he put a hand up. "Keep it. You need it more than I do and I have a hundred of those things."

"Daniel?"

"Daniel."

They chuckled together.

"Ok, so we know who it's not. Who else have we had contact with that might be shady?" Jack asked, getting them back on track.

By the time everyone returned Sam and Jack had their heads together going over a list of possible suspects on her laptop deciding who might have something to gain with this particular development.


	8. Sleep Less

**Chapter 8 – Sleep Less**

A week passed and they were no closer to answers than they had been before. Jacob had gone back to the Tok'ra to see if he could dig anything up on his end. George had insisted they set up in a conference room as the briefing room was for briefings not for camping out on a project.

Jack put his foot down about the exhaustion spells. "Carter, it sits empty ninety percent of the time. You aren't putting me out."

"But sir, it isn't exactly appropriate." Sam insisted.

"You are not sleeping on a cot in your lab and that's final Carter." He told her firmly.

"Sir, with all due respect- "

"I will make it an order if I have to Major." He pointedly reminded her of their respective ranks to end the conversation.

"Yes sir." She finally said meekly.

"Now, go take a nap. I'll wake you in an hour and we can get back to work figuring this out."

"Yes sir." She sighed and left the conference room.

"Being a bit heavy handed, aren't you Jack?" Daniel asked him pointedly.

"She needs rest more than anything else right now. She's got another six weeks before she is out of options and in the meantime I want her to treat this as though she's keeping the baby in case that's what she decides to do in the end." Jack told him.

"Yah, that makes sense Jack but aren't you being a little rough on her?"

"Well, if she'd stop arguing with me every time I try to help her, I wouldn't have to order her around." Jack huffed.

Daniel for his part hugged himself and stared at the ceiling until the desire to tell Jack he was being an ass passed.

They were hitting a wall with options that made sense. Sam was grounded and Jake was investigating leads they gave him but he was coming up empty and the few Teal'c and Daniel had been allowed to follow up on with SG-3 in tow had led to dead ends as well. Jack was starting to bet heavily against himself on figuring out who the father was before the kid was born and he was starting to suspect Sam knew.

* * *

Two hours later Sam had rejoined them, refreshed.

"All right, campers, Hammond wants an update on who else we've eliminated in fifteen so let's get our ducks in a row." He told Daniel and Teal'c. Sam was already organized.

They arrived as a group in the briefing room and Jack noted with amusement that Walter had run a pot of decaf for Sam before setting up a pot of regular for everyone else. Jack made her cup and handed it to her wordlessly before making his own and sitting down next to her.

Daniel and Teal'c exchanged a look that Jack ignored as he didn't give a damn how it looked right now.

George arrived on time and sat down at the head of the table. "All right people, what kind of progress have you made?" He asked them.

"Well sir, we've eliminated about a half dozen more suspects since yesterday." Jack started. Only to put his hand up to block the sudden bright white light at the end of the table.

When it dissipated two very familiar Asgarde stood at the end of the table. One of whom was in wrist binders.

"Thor, buddy, we weren't expecting you but now that you're here, we could really use your help." Jack said in relief.

"Greetings O'Neill, Major Carter, General Hammond, and you as well Doctor Jackson, and Teal'c. I believe I may already have the answers you are looking for." He said in his softly modulated voice.

"Oh? Do share." Jack said with an interested frown then looked around the table for confirmation and received a unanimous collection of head nods.

"Loki, please share with O'Neill, what you have been doing since your escape from confinement." Thor ordered the bound Asgard.

"As you know, genetically O'Neill is not the answer to our evolutionary problem." Loki said with a superior tone.

"Get to the point Loki." Thor ordered him. Jack had never heard Thor this annoyed with the exception of when he'd had to deal with Kinsey.

"I determined that while he may not be the solution, he was definitely a rung in the ladder upwards and endeavored to combine his genetics with a genetically superior specimen in the hopes of creating a significantly more advanced human."

Daniel's mouth dropped open.

"You what?" George all but roared at him.

"O'Neill is genetically superior as is Major Carter." Loki said as though it were patently obvious why he'd have done such a thing.

"And you didn't think to _ask_ if this was something either of us would be ok with?" Jack snarled. "You bastard. I'll tear you apart myself." He said getting up to come around the table at the bound Asgard.

"Colonel! STAND DOWN." George commanded him which was probably the only reason Loki remained alive.

Jack stopped his advance but his hands that had come up in a choking gesture were now balled into fists at his side and his nostrils were flared in fury.

Thor looked from Sam to Jack. "O'Neill, Major Carter, you have my most profound apology for this breach of trust between our people."

"Thor, you said he escaped your custody?" George asked him.

"Yes. Some of our scientists requested his help on a project and assured us that they would keep him confined. They failed." Thor looked down in embarrassment. "We have no desire to cause any action that might result in a rift between our peoples General Hammond. If Major Carter does not wish to continue the gestation, we will be more than happy to terminate it for her."

Only Teal'c noticed Sam's hand fly protectively to her stomach. He tilted his head thoughtfully but did not interrupt.

"We also have the option of transferring the fetus to one of our gestation pods should she so wish. She does not need to carry this pregnancy to term."

"If I had not been recaptured, she would not have known of the pregnancy at all. I would have removed it within days of confirmed viability and she would have been none the wiser." Loki told them.

"Loki, you are not helping your case. O'Neill is extremely angry." Thor admonished him.

"He's not the only one Thor. My people have been violated. Neither was asked for consent in this matter and Loki's decisions have put me in a very uncomfortable position with my flagship team." George told him.

"I understand this General Hammond, and I am profoundly sorry for this situation." Thor said to him. "Loki will be punished for his actions. Again. And we will do everything in our power to correct this wrong if we can."

"It may be out of my hands Thor. Our military has very strict rules about this kind of thing for a reason." George told him.

"I am aware of your government's position on this." Thor admitted.

"I'll discuss it with my people and my government Thor. You have influenced them before but this is an entirely different kind of situation. I don't know that your intervention will matter much to people in our government who would like nothing more than to crucify us on a technicality." George said tiredly.

Thor set a recall device on the table in front of him. "My ship shall remain in your system until a decision is reached. Contact me for anything you may need to resolve this issue in an equitable way General Hammond."

George nodded.

"O'Neill." Thor said.

"Thor." Jack gritted out.

"Loki did not use samples the Asgard had on file of your DNA."

"What are you saying Thor?" Sam finally had found her voice after the initial shock that the child she was carrying was Jack's.

"I think he's saying Loki inseminated you the old fashioned way Sam." Daniel suggested.

"That is reasonably close to his methods – yes, Doctor Jackson."

"I wouldn't have had to if you hadn't destroyed my lab." Loki huffed.

"Be still." Thor ordered him. "Major Carter, this decision effects you and O'Neill most of all. Please feel free to contact me with any questions you should have about our processes."

Sam opened her mouth, closed it, then frowned, perplexed. "Ah, I will Thor." She agreed.

"I will go now." Thor told them, and with a flash of light, both Asgarde disappeared.

The five of them simply looked at each other for a long moment. George was the first to speak.

"Major, Colonel, my office." He told them as he stood and left. Daniel gave them a sympathetic look and Teal'c looked, of all things, reassuring.


	9. Just Believe

**Chapter 9 – Just Believe**

George motioned them both to sit and closed the door. "Sit, both of you." He told them and sat himself. "I don't need to explain the repercussions of this revelation to either of you. I'm well aware you have been handling your personal feelings with a level of professionalism that is exemplary for some time. However, the powers that be may not see things in that light. So far, the only people who know what happened are SG-1, myself, and the Asgard. At this point, any decision you make would remain confidential. If you choose Major, you could terminate the pregnancy or turn it over to the Asgard, and the US government would be none the wiser for the situation. Your medical file would reflect terminated pregnancy of unknown origin." George told her.

"Permission to speak freely sir?" Jack asked. He'd reigned himself in but there was still fury in his eyes.

"Go ahead Jack." George told him, knowing the younger man needed to get it out of his system.

"Over my dead body. Or better yet, over Loki's dead body. He _violated_ Carter sir, and he used my genetics to do it. And now they want to just remove her child and pretend none of this happened. What are they going to do with it? Raise it themselves? The Asgard don't know a damned thing about kids Sir, and I'll be dammed if they are just going to take _my_ kid and expect me to pretend it never happened!" He huffed.

George waited to see if he was done or just gathering himself to continue, not that he blamed the man. He was in the unenviable position of having possibly the one thing he genuinely wanted in quite possibly the worst possible method of doing so.

"Oh hell! Jake is going to kill me." Jack moaned, dropping his head into his hands.

"Sam, do you have anything to add?" George asked, almost dreading her opinion of today's events.

"Permission to volunteer to help Colonel O'Neill beat Loki's ass sir." She told him, dead serious.

George snorted in agreement. "Be that as it may, this affects you the most Sam, and ultimately no matter how any of us might feel about the matter, this is your decision to make."

"No sir. This equally affects Colonel O'Neill and we should decide together how to go forward with this." She told him, for which George bit back a smile, and got her a grateful look from Jack. She didn't technically have to include him as they only had Thor and Loki's word that it was Jack's child. Not that he had any reason to believe they would lie about such a thing.

George looked at them both, considering the situation for a long moment. He was fairly certain what decision they would ultimately make and he was going to have to pull a lot of strings and call in several favors to make the pieces fall in line but the country owed them a considerable debt and he knew ways around them calling his bluff as well.

"Take what time you need to decide what direction you want to go in. You are both off duty until you do so. Go home and figure this out you two. Between yourselves. Come talk to me when you have come to an agreement. Dismissed." He told them.

Jack and Sam nodded then got up and left leaving a pensive General Hammond trying to decide how he was going to spin this to the president and the joint chiefs.

* * *

For their part, Jack and Sam walked down the stairs from George's office studiously not looking at each other for the moment. Jack's hand hovered near the small of her back but he was careful not to touch her.

The reached the landing and Daniel and Teal'c were waiting for them. "Well? What happened?" Daniel asked them.

"We're going home." Jack ground out.

"All of us?" Daniel asked," perplexed.

"No. Just Carter and I." Jack huffed. "You two can go clean up the conference room as the mystery is solved apparently." His tone venomous.

"Are you well Major Carter?" Teal'c asked Sam.

"Yah, it's just a lot to take in. We'll call you guys after we've talked a little, ok?"

"Very well. Daniel Jackson, let us go remove our research from the conference room." Teal'c told the sandy blond man pointedly.

"Yah, sure. Ah, keep us posted I guess?"

"Sure Danny." Jack told him, some of the adrenalin having worn off from his earlier anger.

Sam squeezed Daniel's arm affectionately and she and Jack both left to change back into their civvies.

* * *

"So." Jack said standing next to her Volvo.

"My house or yours?"

"Lady's choice." He told her with a sigh.

"I have more food probably. Let's go back to mine." She hated to admit it but if they went back to his house, there was a high probability they were going to end up in bed together. She didn't know why it mattered but Jack at least seemed to have more self control in her house than his own. Perhaps he was just more aware of his surrounding in her house than his. She knew for sure she had very little herself right now.

"All right. I'll meet you there." He agreed and looked like he might say something but thought better of it and walked back to his truck after he made sure she got into her car.

Back at her house she let him in and put on a pot of coffee. Jack noticed that she'd switched to decaf without him having to get on her ass about it. He opened the fridge, noted most of the choices were healthy and helped himself to a yogurt. He wasn't hungry but it gave him something to do with his hands and he didn't think it was fair to drink a beer in front of her.

"Kitchen or couch?" she asked him nervously.

"Couch. We may as well be comfortable." He said and went to the other room and sat in the corner. She joined him a moment later with two mugs of steaming coffee. Jack set his on the side table, took hers and set it on the coffee table and drew her down to the couch then tugged her into his arms gently. She could easily have pulled away if she'd wanted to but he found himself with his arms full of soft cuddly Carter and just closed his eyes and silently hugged her for a long moment.

Eventually she lifted her head from his shoulder and regarded him thoughtfully. "No matter what, this is your body Sam, and your decision. You need to do what's best for you, all right?" He said as he gently tucked a tuft of hair behind her ear.

Sam shook her head though and huffed out a sigh. "Jack, this is your child too. Our child. I wasn't sure what I was going to do if I had some alien hybrid growing in me but this is _your_ baby. I… I couldn't." She admitted.

Jack looked at her for a long moment before speaking. "As far as anyone knows so far, you don't know the identity of the father. If that's how you want things to stay, I'll respect that. It's probably safer for you to play things out that way anyway. They can't prove anything without a DNA test that they can't force you to consent to." He said. "And none of our enemies can use it against us." He thought of Ba'al in particular. "I'd still like to be part of their life though and hopefully some day, tell the little guy I'm his or her father."

Sam nodded slowly. His idea wasn't a bad one. They only had Thor's word that he was the father. "Jack," she gave him a searching look. "Did you have any strange dreams about being on an Asgard ship last month?"

Jack thought about it. He vaguely remembered something but couldn't pin it down. "I might have, why?"

"Well, I thought I was just really over tired and having weird dreams about past missions all jumbled together somehow but what if those are memories?" A small line formed between her brows.

"I'd rather have memories of mind blowing sex." He admitted with half a smile that made her swat his shoulder gently. "What - you wouldn't?" he teased.

Sam snorted in amusement. "Oh please, you couldn't handle me and we both know it." She teased back.

"Are you propositioning me Carter?" He asked but his tone was teasing and silky.

"Wow, these hormones are affecting my judgment." She admitted.

"So what's my excuse?" He asked her.

"Well, it's a well known scientific fact that men find the mother of their progeny sexually irresistible during pregnancy. Something about their scent changing with their hormone levels." She said smiling coyly up at him while playing with the hem of his sleeve which was pressed against his stomach between them.

Jack tried to figure out if she was teasing him again or not. He wasn't even sure if he cared. If this was how she was without the barrier of frat regs between them he was very much liking this side of her. The problem was that barrier still existed for now which was why he'd suggested the solution he had. Making love to her would be taking advantage of her hormonal state and he had no right to put her in that position. As desirable as she was, as much as he wanted to be her lover, he wanted her going into it with a clear head, and more importantly, a clear conscious. He was very glad now that he'd not made love to her a few weeks ago when she'd come on to him. Before he'd known.


	10. Keep Calm

**Chapter 10 – Keep Calm**

Jack had called George and asked him to meet them at a diner around the corner from Sam's house. George seeing the merit of the idea had agreed and shown up in civvies, looking like nothing more than a concerned uncle to anyone who observed him.

"And you're certain this is how you both want to handle this situation?" He asked them after Jack and Sam had explained that they would keep the identity of the father a secret seeing as Jack had not been a knowing or willing participant but that she chose to carry the pregnancy to term anyway.

"Respectfully sir, it's the only solution that makes sense right now. I don't want to leave SG-1 and we didn't break the regulations. I'll take my maternity leave but I intend to be back on the team again as soon as I'm medically fit to do so."

"May I make a suggestion then?" George asked.

"Absolutely sir." She told him while Jack crammed a couple fries in his mouth.

"Change your next of kin information to each other. That way if there is an incident and we lose one of you, the other can take over as full time parent. I don't need to tell you how convoluted Colorado adoption laws are so have an independent DNA test performed and leave it in a bank vault of your choosing. That way the US government doesn't need to be involved in the outcome."

Sam and Jack looked at each other. Without a father of record, Jack would have to adopt his own child if something happened to Sam and they hadn't thought about that aspect.

"Just so you both know it's an option, I could petition for a deferment for you but that would mean I'd have to break up your team and you would have to get legally married. You would then be allowed to remain on the same base."

"We'd really like to avoid that first one Sir." Jack said. Sam regarded him silently when he didn't express any objection to the second idea, however.

"I thought you might feel that way about it." George admitted. "You should also make arrangements for the eventuality that something happens to you both and that person needs to be someone you can both trust with the identity of your child's father Sam."

They both nodded and considered their possibilities. Janet would have to be sworn to secrecy or they could ask Daniel.

"Other than that, there's not much else to say. Sam, you need to stay out of lab experiments that are a risk to your baby. SG-1 can resume normal operations, I want you to get me a list of potential temporary replacements until Sam's maternity is over with."

"We will sir." Jack assure him.

"Jack, Sam, you know I trust you both, but this situation is going to have further effect on your relationship with each other. I don't think I need to remind either of you to behave with discretion at all times."

"Yes sir." They agreed together.

"Now, if you two don't mind, I have a meeting to get to. You are both off duty until oh nine hundred tomorrow morning at which point I want you to start working on your list of temporary replacements Major."

"Yes sir." She said with a soft smile.

George threw enough money to cover the entire bill and a generous tip on the table as he got up to leave. "I'll see you both tomorrow." He said with a smile as he shrugged on his coat and headed for the door.

Sam and Jack looked at each other for a long time and suddenly Sam's eyes got wide as she realized something Jack caught when George said it. "Did he give us permission to…?"

"Yup." Jack said popping the P.

* * *

They had invited Daniel and Teal'c over that night to bring them into the loop.

"So what, we just ignore that you are going to be a dad Jack?"

"Pretty much Danny." Jack told Daniel who couldn't seem to wrap his head around the fact that the identity of the baby's father had gone from unknown to Jack would shoot him if he told anyone.

"And you're ok with this?"

"It was my idea." He ground out.

Sam was in the bathroom. She had hit the constantly needing to pee stage a few weeks ago and it wasn't letting up any time soon.

Teal'c was in the kitchen cutting up veggies for snacks.

Daniel and Jack were standing in her living room. Daniel had a beer, Jack was drinking a ginger soda Teal'c had brought over for himself and Samantha but Jack felt he needed his wits about him. "This isn't half bad." Jack admitted of the drink in his hand.

Daniel gave him a skeptical look.

"I have tried many brands. This is the most pleasant tasting one." Teal'c agreed. He had brought extra with him as Sam's stomach while not giving her morning sickness had become slightly delicate.

"Did I miss anything?" Sam asked them coming out of the bathroom.

"Not much." Jack told her.

"Daniel Jackson has expressed his concern that this situation is unfair to O'Neill." Teal'c told her. Earning a glare from Jack who he raised an eyebrow at in a dare to challenge the statement.

"It's not like we don't want to tell people Daniel." She told him softly. "It's just that if we do, they will split up the team, and if word got out to any of our numerous enemies Jack has collected, it would put both of us and our baby in danger."

"Wait, I've collected?" Jack said incredulously.

"You do have a tendency to irritate those we oppose O'Neill."

"Well, it's not my fault they keep losing." Jack said sullenly.

Sam snorted with mirth. "It's the safest option for the baby and it keeps our team together as well Daniel."

"Well, I guess that makes sense." Daniel admitted.

"We'll revisit it when the war is over." Jack assured the younger man.

"Get married, have a couple more kids…" Daniel suggested.

"Ah." Jack put a hand up. "One step at a time." But he said that more for Sam's benefit than his own. If there was any chance she still wanted to be with him when the Goa'uld were defeated, he was throwing himself at her. Begging if necessary.

"So how are you guys going to handle this?" Daniel asked them. "Logistically." He added.

"I'd like to ask you guys for help with that. My guest room needs to be cleaned out and converted to nursery." She told them.

"I'll put a half door on your basement stairwell." Jack told her. At her enquiring look he elaborated. "House needs to be baby proofed." He told her.

Sam nodded. It did. She supposed she might need a bigger place eventually but she hesitated to do so until she was certain which direction her life would be taking. She was a little afraid to hope moving in with Jack was an option as she loved his house and it was more than big enough for the two of them and a baby. She blushed thinking perhaps enough room for a second child as well.

Jack looked at her in curiosity and she shook her head. They needed to discuss that possibility privately not in front of their friends.


	11. They Know The Way

**Chapter 11 – They Know The Way**

"It must be hard staying behind." Her lab assistant, Chloe, said to her after she came back from the gate room to see SG-1 off.

"A little." Sam admitted. It was the worrying that was the biggest problem she thought as she rubbed her now slightly rounded stomach. She wasn't far along enough to show if she wore her loose BDU shirt over her t-shirt but she'd had to start wearing a larger size in t-shirts and BDU pants for comfort though she hadn't quite hit stealing Jack's clothes yet.

The girl was nice enough and Sam reminded herself she needed her for any heavy lifting. When SG-1 had gone back on duty without her, the rumors had started and she'd had to reveal that she wasn't off the team, only taking maternity leave from it. She'd received perplexed congratulations from most of the base and surreptitious looks when she was talking to Jack to see if anyone could spot some kind of evidence that the baby might be his.

They had put their best friends in a position of having to lie for them as well which Sam felt mildly bad about but not enough to reconsider the danger he or she might be in should one of their many enemies discover the child's parentage. That didn't mean a slightly crazy part of her didn't want to inform anyone who would listen that her baby's father was Jack and that he was not available either. And _that_ particular train of thought she hoped was just the hormones talking because she refused to engage in the kind of fantasies She'd caught Felger and Jack fantasizing about one day. And for someone Jack didn't particularly like Sam was a little concerned they were casually discussing who they thought would win a Jello fight among the female SGC staff. Even if Jack had insisted she'd mop the floor with almost every woman on staff.

It was their third off-world mission without her and while Sam was slowly adjusting to remaining on base instead, she didn't have to like it.

Normally Chloe was Felger's lab assistant but he'd been temporally assigned to Coombs again to help him get their current project done. A situation Coombs had objected to but accepted.

"Have you got a minute?" Janet said poking her head into Sam's lab.

"Sure Janet, what's up?" Sam asked. Grateful for the distraction. Her thoughts kept wandering off to what the guys were doing without her instead of her work.

"Well, we just got in a new ultrasound machine and I thought we could use you to experiment with it." Janet admitted.

"Oooohhh… Guinea pig." Chloe said in interest.

Sam rolled her eyes at the small blond. "Do you have things here handled?"

"Of course Major Carter." She said with a smile. Unlike Felger, Dr. Angsrom was competent.

"All right then. Let's go." Janet urged Sam out the door to the elevator.

"You're awfully excited about this Janet."

"My best friend is having a baby and I get to look at it first. Yes, I'm excited." Janet said as though it was the most obvious thing ever. "Have you put any thought into names yet?"

"A little. I thought I'd talk to the guys and see if they had any ideas." Sam admitted.

Janet chuckled. "You really want those three to help you pick names? You're liable to end up with Homer or Horatio as suggestions." She reminded Sam.

Sam grinned. "I didn't say I'd pick their choices."

Janet laughed. She sobered a little and looked at Sam thoughtfully. "How is the colonel dealing with this?"

"How do you mean?" Sam asked her with a mask of innocence.

"Sam, it's not really a secret how he feels about you. This is probably really hard on him." Janet said gently.

Sam smiled shyly at her best friend. "We talked about it Janet. He's ok with this." She said looking her in the eyes.

Janet couldn't find evidence that Sam was lying to her by looking in her eyes. "All right, if you're sure."

"I'm very sure. Let's go play with your new ultrasound machine." Sam told her.

Because of her particular blood composition, Janet had put her foot down about Sam delivering at the SGC rather than Evans. George had seen no reason to argue with the small CMO and had requisitioned the equipment and a dedicated lab tech that was an expert in such things with the clearance to be on the base. Their reasoning had been evacuations often included pregnant refugees and making sure the pregnancies were progressing normally would help reassure those women that gate travel had not harmed their growing children.

They entered one of the backrooms of the infirmary where the ultrasound was set up and Janet's new lab tech was adjusting some of the new instruments. "Carolyn, this is Major Carter. We'll be doing her ten-week ultrasound today."

"Nice to meet you Major. I'll need you to lie down on the table and lift your shirt and pull your pants down to your crotch line." She told her with a smile.

Sam looked nonplussed about how this was going already. Janet patted her arm gently. "You've had worse."

Sam rolled her eyes. Of course she'd had worse. And she laid down and did as she was ordered.

The tech walked Janet through how to operate the machine and demonstrated for Janet where she needed to search for Sam's growing child even though Janet had managed fine with the modified ultrasound they used to check for hitchhiking Goa'uld to confirm the pregnancy initially.

Sam and Janet grinned at each other when Janet found the baby's heartbeat. Sam almost said she wished Jack was here but stopped herself from expressing that wistful thought out loud. Janet turned the monitor slightly so Sam could see the details. To Sam, they looked a little like a Thor-shaped blob and she told Janet so.

The tech chuckled. "Your baby looks very normal and healthy for this stage of development Major. The heart rate is right on track as well."

"The Colonel is going to love the Thor joke Sam." Janet said chuckling, "But he or she looks exactly right." Janet moved the ultrasound around and asked the tech a couple technical questions. Sam wasn't familiar with the terms used.

"Let's get you a couple photos to show the guys." Janet said, grinning. She had a feeling Sam did know who the father was now. After weeks of frenzied searching, one day they had just cleaned everything up without a word and moved on like it didn't matter. Whoever it had been, it wasn't someone that bothered Sam to be pregnant by and Janet thought that was a very narrow list frankly. Someone the Colonel was also comfortable was an even more narrow list. The baby was definitely human or near human though and she knew if nothing else she'd have been informed of that so like everyone else she supposed she'd wait and see.

Walter's voice announced an unscheduled wormhole activation and both Sam and Janet looked up. Was it a team coming back early or a visitor?


	12. Aim High

**Chapter 12 – Aim High**

The Tok'ra operative that SG-1 was scheduled to meet with was Jacob Carter. "Jack." He said, his mouth a firm line as he greeted him.

"What have we got here dad?" Jack asked him, wondering about the body language of the other man.

"We'll go over that in a bit. Walk with me." Jacob said.

And with that, Jack knew somehow that Jake knew who the father of Sam's child was. He was officially a dead man.

Once they were out of earshot of Daniel, Teal'c, and most especially, Captain Anders, their temporary science geek, Jacob gave Jack a hard look.

Jack returned the look. Jake didn't need to know he was bluffing.

"Something you haven't gotten around to telling me yet son?" Jake asked him in a suspiciously mild voice.

"Nothing comes to mind." Jack said with a shrug. Technically this was classified information and it was Carter's job to tell her dad or not what they had found out.

"Well, I find it very interesting that suddenly the leads dried up and everyone had an extreme lack of interest in the paternity of my daughter's child." Jacob told him and gave Jack a significant glance.

"Have you talked to General Hammond?" Jack suggested.

"I'm asking you Jack."

"I don't know what to tell you. I was told to stop looking so I stopped looking."

"And you and my daughter just accepted that."

"Not initially." Jack told him.

"Jack, I know deep space radar telemetry when I see it." He told the younger man in a falsely pleasant voice.

Jack visibly winced. "It's not my intel to share sir." Jack hedged.

"Since when am I sir?" Jacob said to him pointedly.

Since I became the father of your youngest grandchild, Jack thought but the only thing that flitted across his face was a split second of panic. Jacob saw it anyway and nodded almost to himself.

"I'm giving you a chance to come clean Jack." Jacob tried.

"It's not my intel to share." Jack insisted.

"Fine. After we're done here, I'm coming back with you so Sam can tell me herself."

"That's up to you dad." Jack said, relieved that he was off the hook. Of course, when Sam told him, Jack was still going to die a slow and potentially very painful death but he'd get to see Carter one last time before he did. Hopefully.

* * *

Things had been going great right up until they hadn't and Jacob, Teal'c, Jack, Daniel, and Anders found themselves pinned down half a mile away from the gate with a swath of Jaffa blocking their way. The sabotage had gone great. It was that whole sneaking back out that had gone badly.

Jack counted Jaffa through his scope. Too many for SG-1 to take out in broad daylight. "We're going to have to wait for night." He told Jacob who looked through Jack's scope and agreed. Teal'c was dressed as one of the guards but without a helmet he was noticeably not a member of the guard detail up close.

"I recommend we wait for darkness and kill them silently." Teal'c told Jack.

Jack nodded slowly. It was about the only plan they had. "We'll need to steal some flash bangs off them and distract them away from the gate." He added.

"Leave that to me." Jacob said.

Now all they had to do was avoid the patrols until nightfall.

* * *

Several hours later Teal'c systematically and silently butchered scouts between them and the gate and handed the Jaffa version of flash bangs off to Jacob. All of them stole the ear plugs off the litter of dead bodies strewn across the forest floor and Jake slipped off into the night to lob stun grenades at the remaining Jaffa who were becoming suspicious but couldn't figure out where their butcher was coming from.

Jacob took out the group near the gate and Jack ordered everyone to rush the DHD. "Anders, dial us home." He ordered the excruciatingly young man with nearly white blond hair cut into a fade.

Teal'c picked off a couple stragglers and shot the stunned guards in front of him without prejudice.

Suddenly Jake turned and fired on a group of Jaffa that had circled around but one of them grabbed him while the remaining ones laid down cover fire.

Jack swore and started firing on the struggling group, only firing when he had a clear shot that wouldn't hit Jacob as he figured Carter would rearrange his face with her fists if he shot her dad. Focused on not hitting Jacob, Jack didn't notice the other Jaffa until a staff blast hit him square in the back of his leg, barely missing his ass.

Teal'c heard Jack's startled cry of pain and shot the Jaffa in the head then took out the rest of Jacob's assailants. There were no more Jaffa left but that didn't mean more weren't coming.

Jacob and Daniel grabbed Jack under his arms and dragged him through the gate with Anders and Teal'c right on their heals.

They stood on the platform panting. Jack's leg a bloody mess.

The Ordinance officer called for the infirmary personnel to hurry up because they had an injury and medics swarmed the gate room to put Jack on a gurney and carted him away.

"Sammy is going to kill me." Jacob muttered under his breath and Daniel looked at him sharply. "I was supposed to be watching your asses." He told him and stomped off to find his daughter before she found out he'd gotten Jack shot in the ass.


	13. Begin With One Step

**Chapter 13 – Begin With One Step**

"I'll take him home." Jacob told Janet in front of Jack who was becoming progressively more annoyed with laying in bed in the infirmary. Sam had checked on him and brought him his game boy but she had projects to work on and the Air Force wasn't paying her to babysit her CO even if she'd rather do so.

"Why can't Carter or Teal'c take me home?" Jack whined. He'd discovered he could lay on his right side or his stomach but not his back or left side. Any plans he'd had about seducing Sam with their Commander's permission were going to have to wait for his ass to heal.

"They have jobs sir. General Carter has graciously offered to take you home so you can be comfortable in your own home. I've restricted Major Carter's hours so she'll be able to stop by and check on the both of you on her way home." Janet told him.

"Restricted? Why? Is she ok?" Jack asked suddenly more concerned about Sam than his own pain.

"She's fine sir, I restricted her hours so she would catch up on sleep as she's still struggling with exhaustion. It's perfectly normal."

Jacob left to go let Sam know what was going on and Janet pulled something from her pocket. "I have something for you sir." She said with a conspiratorial smile and slipped him a copy of the ultrasound.

Jack looked down at the photo in his hand and beamed. "Thank you." He said to her in a heartfelt voice.

"Don't tell Sam I slipped you a copy Sir. She wanted to show you herself."

"Why did-?"

"Just a little experiment sir. Don't worry. I don't _know_ anything."

Jack nodded in understanding.

* * *

"Carter, please." He all but begged her.

"I'll stop by to bring you guys food sir, but that's a terrible idea."

"Are you still at work?" he demanded, having noted she called him sir and not Jack.

"I have one more thing to finish up before I can leave sir."

"I'll tell Janet."

"She knows I'm still here sir."

"Not that. The other thing."

"She already knows." Sam said firmly. Because somehow Sam knew when she'd stopped by the infirmary to help her dad get Jack out of Janet's hair, the other woman had given her a look that made Sam instantly realize her best friend had put the puzzle pieces together somehow.

"Dammit, how did you find that out?"

"She's terrible at poker sir." She told him and waved goodnight to Chloe.

"Carter, take pity on me. Please."

"Sir, you only have one guest room."

"You can sleep in my room." He said as though that was a logical solution.

"That is a terrible idea." She told him firmly.

"Carter, I got shot in the ass. I'm in no condition to do anything to you anyway."

"Sir, frankly, I'm a bit more concerned about what I might do to you."

"Oh so that's still going on huh?" He said with a chuckle. Fortunately Jake was downstairs watching a football game loudly enough that his quiet murmur wouldn't be overheard with the door closed.

"I don't think that's an appropriate topic over the phone." She told him primly.

"So come over and talk to me about it in person. I don't bite." She could hear the grin in his voice. "Unless you want me to that is."

"Sir." Was all she said but he could tell by way she hissed it that she was blushing deeply.

Jack chuckled. "C'mon, Carter. Have pity on me." He wheedled knowing he was wearing her down.

Sam huffed. "Fine. I'll have to stop by my place to get some pajamas and _you_ will be explaining to dad why I'm there."

"Oh, I think he'll know why you're going to be here." Jack told her in a silky purr that had her blushing again.

"I'm going to regret this." She told him. "See you in two hours sir." And she hung up the phone before he could further screw with her libido.

* * *

"What took you so long?" Jacob demanded.

"Sorry dad, but I knew you guys needed groceries and I needed to grab some things from my house if I'm going to stay the night."

"How did he talk you into that?"

"Blackmail mostly." She admitted. "And guilt."

Jacob laughed.

"It's not funny dad." She told him sulkily.

"So when were the two of you going to get around to telling me he's the father?"

Sam sputtered on her tea. "What?" she choked out finally.

"Sammy, you're my daughter and I know how your mind works. I also know how Jack's mind works. If that's not his child, I'm a monkey's uncle."

"Well, a monkey's grandpa anyway." Jack said from the doorway.

"What are you doing out of bed?" Sam asked him sharply.

"I'm bored Carter." He told her. "Besides I heard you come in and when you didn't come up to check on me right away, I figured dad was grilling you." He admitted.

"I'll bring the TV up from the den for you as soon as I put this food away." She told him.

"Oh no you won't. I'll do it." Jake told her firmly.

"Dad, I'm pregnant not helpless." She growled.

"No heavy lifting." Her father admonished and headed for the den.

Sam growled at his retreating back.

"I thought I was going to be the one that drove you up a wall." Jack said, rather enjoying the angry flush on her cheeks that he'd rather put there doing something far more pleasurable.

"You both drive me up a wall." She said mutinously. She'd hit the point where she didn't care that he was her CO. She wasn't currently in his chain of command. He was, however, the father of her child. Her shoulders sagged. "I'm sorry." She told him.

"Hey, don't apologize for me being an annoying ass Carter. Ever." He told her as he hobbled over on his crutch. He lifted his free hand and stroked her cheek gently and when her eyes drooped and she turned into his touch he tugged her forward. "C'mere" he said softly and hugged her gently with his free arm.

Her arms slid around his waist and she hugged him back, her face buried in his shoulder.

Jake rounded the corner on them standing in the kitchen hugging and quietly ducked back to the other room. He didn't understand why they didn't push for the deferment they were entitled to. The military was consistent about these situations. They would tell them they could be court marshaled or get married. Jake suddenly realized it had more to do with her team than their feelings for each other though and silently agreed with Selmak that some of the rules were indeed, stupid.

* * *

"Look, Sammy, There's something I should tell you." Jacob told her later that evening while they watched a documentary. Janet had given Jack excellent pain pills but he still wore out quickly so they had helped him back to bed and found him something to watch on TV.

"What is it dad?"

"It's my fault Jack got shot." He admitted.

"That's unlikely. Jack is pretty good at getting shot without your help." She said chuckling.

"In this case it is. I wasn't paying attention and a group of Jaffa got behind me. Jack was trying to pick them off and one of the ones Teal'c and Daniel hadn't killed yet shot him while he was focused on me. I'm sorry."

Sam sighed. "You didn't mean to get him shot dad. This stuff happens in our line of work."

"It does, but you already had enough on your plate. At least the father is someone you care about." Jake said waving his hand at her belly.

"Yah well, it doesn't make things any less complicated that's for sure."

"I didn't think it would. Who else knows?"

"Teal'c and Daniel. Janet figured it out. Uncle George and you."

"That's it?" he asked surprised.

"That's it dad. Thor showed up, made Loki tell us what he did, offered to help in any way he could and left."

"In any way he could?"

"Oh well, he offered to remove the baby and use one of their gestation pods to incubate it the rest of the time, then raise it themselves."

"They what?" Jacob asked, his voice raising.

"Keep it down. Jack offered to beat the crap out of Loki and told Uncle George over his dead body. He's still mad about it."

"I'd have paid to watch that." Jacob admitted.

Sam shrugged and giggled a little, then sobered. "I think he knew."

"What do you mean?"

"I think he knew or at least suspected it might be his before Thor confirmed it for us."

"Why do you say that?"

"Well, he just didn't seem all that surprised by Thor's admission. Uncle George was but Jack looked…" She thought for a moment. "Jack looked relieved."

"Sammy, that might have a lot more to do with the fact that he's in love with you than strongly suspecting he was the father."

"Possibly." She admitted but there was something in the way he'd looked at Thor then her. Something in his eyes that told her he'd already suspected that he might be the father.


	14. Never Give Up

_**AN:**__ For those of you wondering why Jacob seems ok with all this... he's teamed up with Jack to give Sam a hard time in the show too._

**Chapter 14 – Never Give Up**

Jack woke up to something soft and warm cuddled against his chest. He smiled because even though he'd not taken her up on what she'd offered that morning he had very fond memories of the last time he'd woken up with Sam cuddled in his arms.

Her face was planted in his chest and her right hand was on his hip above the bandaged burn on his left leg.

If he didn't need to pee so badly, he'd have stayed cuddled against her until she woke up. Of course if he wasn't so badly injured he'd wake her up to make love to her but that wasn't happening any time soon either. Oh, and he saw the irony that the woman he loves was pregnant with his child and he'd never so much as gone further than kissing her passionately. George had told them to use discretion. He probably figured the intimacy of pregnancy and raising a child together was going to be more than their self-control could manage.

George was probably right.

Jack had a bit of a revelation while he'd lain in that infirmary though. Had the baby not been his, he'd still be acting this way towards her. He still would have been excited for and in love with that ultrasound photo. Because he knew his Carter only had eyes for him and felt nothing for the man who had inseminated her against her will had it not been Jack's child.

They had talked about Orlin and Marty and Narim after Thor's revelation and Sam had told him that while she was flattered by the attention and it was nice to be cared about that way. Orlin and Narim had her on a pedestal she'd have fallen off of eventually and Marty's love was possessive and a little warped by her having been the host of Jolinar, that regardless of what Lantash had said, it wasn't really Sam they had loved but Jolinar's memory inside Sam. She cared about them, of course, but she didn't share Jolinar's love for Lantash and Martouf the way they had hoped she would. She had liked Orlin but not loved him the way he'd hoped she would, though she admitted with time, perhaps she could have.

Jack had honestly been a bit surprised. From her later descriptions, Orlin was actually a fairly decent guy for an Alteran and Marty had clearly genuinely cared about her which was why he'd given her time to grieve for him after she'd had to kill him. Hell, he'd liked the guy and grieved with her. Narim was a bit of a weirdo but all the Tollan were. He was at least nice which was more than Jack could say for some of his buddies.

They hadn't had to say the words to each other either. All it had taken was a long look in each other's eyes again and they both knew the truth. Of course that had been before they left on this last mission without Sam and Jack had tried to get his ass shot off. A little higher and he could forget about more kids.

He hadn't talked to her about that yet but if the war was over in the next couple years, even though he knew he was getting up there for starting a second family, Jack really wanted to talk about if they would have a second child together. He figured he should talk her into marrying him first though.

In the meantime however, he really did need to pee so he slid himself carefully away from her and tried not to jostle the bed too much as she needed her rest. After he finished in the bathroom, he made his way quietly downstairs. He figured Jake would be up and he really should talk to Carter's dad about this whole thing.

"Sammy not up yet?" Jacob asked him from the kitchen table.

Jack leaned against the door jamb. "Nah. She needs some sleep. I texted George from the bathroom and he said it's fine."

"Good. She needs to take care of herself right now." Jacob said to Jack but Jake was preaching to the choir. Jack had been trying to get Sam to take care of herself for years.

"Are you ok with this dad? I know I'm not exactly your first choice for the father of Sam's kids."

Jacob Carter smiled at the man's verbal slip of saying kids. He had every intention of sticking by her side. That's all Jake had really wanted for his daughter. Someone who loved her for who she was and she clearly had that in Jack. He wasn't about to tell the man that though.

"Well, if I had my pick, I'd prefer Daniel." He admitted but his tone was teasing.

"Don't tell Sam that. She sees him as a brother and it would seriously weird her out."

Jacob chuckled. He already knew that. Danny was nice and safe and he supposed that had been his first reason for latching on to that idea. Introspection was far more fluid when the Tok'ra in your head didn't let you lie to yourself about your reasons. "But I suppose you'll do for now." Jake told the man who would be his son-in-law eventually if he was a betting man. George had a Benjamin or two on various outcomes involving a trip to Vegas or Reno. Jacob however knew she's the kind that would wait until she wasn't breaking any rules with her decision. He should try putting a couple ideas in Jack's head about that.

Jack gave the father of the woman he loved a hard look which just made Jacob laugh harder.

"Relax Jack." Jacob gave Jack crap for being too old for Sam but Sam had always preferred older men, even when she was younger she had crushed on kids several years older than herself. "I don't have any influence over her taste in guys other than a couple I think she dated out of spite." Jacob admitted.

Jack had to agree. He couldn't see her taken in by Jonas for as long as she had been other than to irk her father.

"How would you like some breakfast? Can you even sit yet?"

Jack shook his head, Even with the medication he was on for the pain, sitting was a no go. The skin on his leg had been nearly fried off. He was probably going to have a new patch of semi numb skin to contend with back there. If only it worked on his busted knee. Ba'al had done him a little bit of a favor reviving him a bunch of times, it had dialed back the damage by a few years but it was still trashed. He had a couple years of active duty left and then he was probably going to be flying a desk. He wasn't looking forward to it but it might have its perks if he could talk Sam into marrying him.

"Well, pull up a piece of wall Jack. I'll make you some breakfast." Jacob told him.

* * *

About an hour later a slightly disoriented Sam walked into the kitchen rubbing at her eyes with the back of her hand. She blinked at her dad and Jack eating breakfast together.

Jacob smiled a little to himself. Jack in a bathrobe and boxers and Sammy in sleep pants and a tank top, her belly slightly swollen with their child. She'd stopped herself from leaning in and kissing him but Jake hadn't missed her hand run discreetly down the back of Jack's arm as she moved past him.

_'You miss Debra.'_ Selmak told him.

_'She used to do the same thing when she was pregnant with Mark.' _

_'They are happy.'_ There was a smile in Selmak's voice

_'Good. They deserve to be.' _

"Sammy, can I get you some breakfast?" Jacob asked his daughter out loud.

"Coffee is fine." Sam said.

"Carter. Food." Jack ordered her gruffly.

Jacob chuckled at Sam's scowl.

"You need to eat Sammy. It's not good for the baby to live on coffee even if it's decaf."

"Fine." She huffed and opened the fridge door to find a yogurt and some fruit.

Jack and Jacob exchanged an amused look they quickly wiped off their faces as she turned around


	15. Go Confidently

**Chapter 15 – Go Confidently**

"You need to pick someone for a birthing coach." Daniel told Sam while they sat in her lab eating lunch. "You're five months along."

"I know… it's just…" Sam shrugged.

The guys had cleaned out her guest room and bought her a crib, a changing table, and a small dresser for the baby. Nearly everyone on base had bought her baby clothes and diapers. She was running out of room. Jack had baby-proofed every potential hazard and she forgave him for being a little nervous about the whole thing. She politely ignored that he'd baby proofed his own home as well. He'd also set up a crib in the corner of the guest room so she could bring the baby on team nights.

His slightly grumpy delivery of this thought process had made her tear up and kiss him thoroughly.

"You want Jack to do it and you're afraid to ask after what he's been through." Daniel suggested.

"That's some of it but he's going to be upset if I don't ask him too and what if he's off-world when I go into labor?"

"But Sam, that's going to apply to almost everyone you are friends with who has the clearance to be here for the birth."

Sam sighed and toyed with her... whatever it was on her plate. It couldn't be healthy for her and she'd stuck to eating the salad he'd brought with it.

Jack was training a group of recruits with Teal'c today which was why Daniel was eating lunch with her in her lab. The guys had basically rotated making sure she ate lunch if they had things scheduled. Once Jack's leg had healed enough that he could sit again though, Sam had moved back out when Jacob went back to his duties with the Tok'ra. Sam had not been kidding about how much she didn't trust herself to jump him without supervision.

She blamed her hormones but she honestly knew it wasn't just her body being out of whack. The only thing she was really suffering from was her inhibitions being a bit lower due to baby brain combined with her current superior sense of smell and Jack smelled… really good.

Jack was the one that made sure she left for the night though and followed behind her in his truck until she split off to head for her own home. Periodically he talked her into dinner somewhere. They talked about the baby and a little about work and flirted with each other lightly over burgers and salads.

* * *

"Carter, it's eighteen hundred. Go change." Jack said gruffly from her lab doorway. Her assistant had already left and he called the desk upstairs to find out unsurprisingly that she was still on base.

"Sorry Sir, I was in the middle of something and lost track of time." She admitted.

Jack chuckled. "Carter, you're always in the middle of something."

Sam smirked. "Yes sir." She admitted.

Jack fought a smile. "You're supposed to be taking it easy Carter." He gave her middle a significant stare.

She was still remarkably flat stomached for how far along she was. Her height and her physical fitness worked to her advantage. Pregnancy agreed with her for the most part and the fact that she wasn't currently in his chain of command wasn't helping him keep his hands off her when they were off base. It was probably a good thing she'd backed off a little physically. They had gone back to fairly safe kinds of making out situations where it couldn't go further like a good night kiss by their cars or when the guys were there so they would be interrupted. It was only a good thing because in a few months, she'd be back in his chain of command and while making love to her right now wasn't breaking any regs, it wouldn't just end because they had to work together directly again and even Jack had to admit that was going to be a problem later if they acted on their feelings now.

He hated that she'd been right that even though George had given them permission to pursue a relationship, that they really probably shouldn't. He knew their child would keep them connected regardless so no matter what, he always had that open line with her to work with. It was only a couple more years. He hoped.

"Carter." He said in a sing song voice. It had been a solid ten minutes. He gave her a pointed look as he pointed at his watch.

"Sorry sir." She ducked her head and started shutting stuff down. In reality, she'd been avoiding the conversation she needed to have with him. They were fine, mostly. She was included on mission briefings that they found anything of scientific value which she appreciated. The guys made sure she didn't eat alone. Jack made sure they ate in public so they weren't tempted to discuss subjects at work that they shouldn't. But that was the problem. She needed to ask him to be her birthing coach if he wanted to be.

"Not an issue Carter, but it's late and you need to eat."

"I know sir." She told him as she shut her computer off and walked to the door. She smiled nervously up at him.

Jack tilted his head at her odd behavior. "What is it?" He asked her gently as he stuffed his hands in his pockets and followed her down the hall.

"Sir… I was wondering…" She said and bit her lip.

"The unladen speed of an average swallow?" He asked grinning which earned him a bit back smile from her.

"Actually sir, I had a request of a rather personal nature." She admitted looking at him from under her lashes.

"I'm all ears Carter." He said as they entered the elevator.

Sam leaned back against the elevator wall and regarded the tall graying man in front of her.

"Sam?" he asked, looking slightly befuddled.

"I need a birthing coach." She admitted. "You don't have to. I'd totally understand if you aren't comfortable but I thought possibly under the circumstances…" She went from babbling nervously to her voice faltering as his expression transitioned from befuddled to tender.

"When's your ultrasound?" He asked her gently, his eyes warm with the love he felt for her.

"Tuesday."

"Can I come?"

"Don't you think that's going to look…"

"Like your birthing coach is joining you for your ultrasound?"

Sam's eyes went wide a moment but a slow smile spread across her face until she was grinning at him full bore and it nearly took his breath away. "Yes sir." She said warmly.

Jack nodded. "Well that's settled then." He said grinning back.

The door slid open and they both smothered their grins as a pair of airmen got on the elevator with them.

"Sirs." One of them said and Jack nodded politely but cut his eyes to Sam and winked which made her bite back another smile.


	16. Fight For Them

**Chapter 16 – Fight For Them**

SG-1 was back from yet another mission that had gone somewhat well for a change but Jack had wanted Sam to review some technology Daniel and Anders had found in the ruins they had examined this week. Sam was secretly glad George had been assigning SG-1 cake missions though he'd very carefully avoided mentioning it to any of them. Jack was torn about the matter as they were usually missions for other teams but Sam would stress about them being on more dangerous missions like the sabotage one they had met up with Jacob on and he didn't care what she said otherwise, she had stayed at his place because his injury had scared the crap out of her.

Anders was describing their find to Hammond while Sam made notes when a commotion was heard outside in the hallway.

All six of them looked at each other then up at the door. Teal'c got up to open it to find out what was going on when Senator Kinsey and an aide stormed in with Walter trailing behind them, a stormy look on his face and two airmen behind them. "Sir, I'm sorry, he ordered the airmen up top not to inform you of their entry." He told Hammond.

"It's all right Sergeant. Return to your duties. I'm certain we can handle one politician." He said looking archly at Kinsey who sat down at the head of the table with a smarmy smile on his face.

"The airmen stay." Kinsey said with a glint in his eyes.

Walter nodded curtly and glared daggers at Kinsey before leaving.

"Now then Senator, how can I help you?" George said curtly as he stood. His hand dipped into his pants pocket.

"Airmen, arrest those two." Kinsey said pointing at Jack and Sam.

"On what grounds?!" Hammond demanded.

"Fraternization." Kinsey said with a rather mean smile.

"Why you slimy-" "Jack said, as he started to stand.

"Sit down, Colonel." George ordered him. "You need to have some proof Senator, before you can arrest people for baseless accusations."

"Your proof is right there." He said and pointed at Sam's stomach.

"What exactly are you saying Senator?" George's tone was low with warning.

"Major Carter is pregnant with Colonel O'Neill's child and the SGC has been hiding it, but I found out the truth. I have photographs and video of them together in public."

Sam's mouth dropped open in horror. Jack balled his fist on the table. He'd sat as ordered but he was mentally tearing Kinsey limb from limb and everyone in the room knew it.

"That's a hell of an accusation Senator, but Major Carter is not currently in Colonel O'Neill's chain of command and has not been for months now. She is head of R&D and reports directly and _only_ to me currently. Anything you have of their public behavior is their own business." He said pointing firmly at the table.

"She wasn't when she got pregnant by him General. You might be arrested next for trying to hide what I found out." He said grinning.

"No, that's correct. Major Carter was under Colonel O'Neill's command when she became pregnant." George told him.

"So you admit he got her pregnant?" Kinsey asked triumphantly.

There was a flash of white light and Thor appeared with Loki in tow.

"O'Neill did not impregnate Major Carter, Senator Kinsey." Thor told the senator.

"It's his child." Kinsey insisted.

"That is correct. Major Carter's fetus is genetically O'Neill's progeny. However, O'Neill was not the one who impregnated her nor were either aware of her insemination when it happened."

Kinsey looked like he was about to explode. "What?"

"Loki escaped confinement and resumed previous experimentation on O'Neill which led to an attempt at adding additional genetic information to determine if another combination would lead to resolving my people's genetic challenges."

"In other words Senator, Colonel O'Neill broke zero regulations with Major Carter. Any visual evidence you have is of a close friend being supportive of her pregnancy that he happens to have a vested interest in the outcome." George told him. "Airmen, Captain Anders, you are to share nothing of what you heard in this meeting. Senator Kinsey seems unclear on what national security means."

"Yes sir." They said together.

"You may leave now." He told the airmen with a nod and both turned and closed the door behind them. "Now then Senator, would you like to explain to me why you had my people followed and photographed without informing their commanding officer?"

"Because you were covering for them." Kinsey snarled.

"Yes, I was. My people were violated and used against their will. It's my responsibility to make sure they are not punished for situations that they did not have control over."

"Senator Kinsey, Loki is being punished for his further crimes against O'Neill and Major Carter. My people did offer to take the child and gestate it ourselves, sparing Major Carter any further pain or inconvenience. Both O'Neill and Major Carter expressed the opinion that this was… unacceptable." Thor said, with a small smile.

"I said 'over my dead body'." Jack groused, crossing his arms across his chest and a glare at Loki that made Sam bite back a smile and look at her hands in her lap.

"Major Carter's pregnancy was noted within less than a month of conception and she was taken out of Colonel O'Neill's command immediately. Several weeks before Thor informed us of Loki's capture and what he'd been doing with his time. You have nothing Senator." George said firmly.

Kinsey stood and motioned to his aide. "You haven't seen the last of me." He snarled at Jack and Sam.

"Wouldn't miss it." Jack said with false cheer.

Kinsey saw himself out and everyone looked at each other without saying anything for a second.

"People, we have a leak." George told them.

"I'm on it sir. Carter, let's go play whack-a-mole." Jack said, with a tight grin as he got up.

"Yes sir." She told him grinning back, then looked to Hammond.

"Go. Plug this you too. Report back to me as soon as you know who it was." George told them. "The rest of you are also dismissed." He said to Daniel, Teal'c and Captain Anders.


	17. Stay Humble

**Chapter 17 – Stay Humble**

"So this is resolved then?" George asked Jack and Sam who were sitting in his office explaining who the leak was.

"Yes sir. We went over the roster and had everyone who came onto base within the last six months investigated. We only had to follow about five of them to find our spy." Sam told him.

"How angry is Major Frasier?"

"Oh, pretty angry sir." Jack admitted.

"I'm fairly angry myself. Major, we need to bring in another maternity support staff in short order. If Janet gives you a short list, can you investigate them and make sure we don't get another situation like last month?"

"Yes sir." Sam said agreeably.

"Now that we have that covered, how are you feeling Sam?" George asked her kindly.

"Everything feels weird sir." She admitted and Hammond chuckled.

"I imagine this must be a very strange situation for you both. It's not too late to get a deferment you know." He told them, his eyes twinkling at Jack's deer in the headlights expression."

"Thank you sir but I think Jack was right. Things need to stay as they are for now until there are less opportunities for the Goa'uld to use the information against us."

"It's your call people. I'll remind you both to remain discreet in public."

"Yes sir." Jack said quickly which earned him an amused snort from Sam. "What?"

"Nothing Sir." She told him as she chewed on a smile.

George chuckled. "Hang in there you two. We'll win this war and then I'm going to pull in every marker I'm owed for you if you still want me to."

Sam and Jack goggled at George open mouthed.

"Well, don't look so surprised. A blind man can see what you mean to each other."

Jack looked down at his boots and coughed into his folded hand in embarrassment. Sam blushed.

"Unless you have something else to report you are both dismissed." He told them.

"Thank you sir." Jack said and rose from his chair, putting his hand out solicitously to Sam to help her up. Nearly seven months pregnant she was getting a bit ungainly.

* * *

"So was she a plant or did he buy her after she was working here?" Daniel asked Jack while they ate lunch.

"Janet thinks she was already a spy when she got there. She was reporting directly to Kinsey. We caught her photographer buddy too."

"How did you manage that?" Daniel asked.

"I made a date with Carter in the infirmary during a check up and let him tail me." Jack bit savagely into his pastrami sandwich. "Should have realized I was being followed earlier." He growled.

"Your mind was on other things O'Neill." Teal'c told him.

"That's no excuse. If it had been some sicko instead of a spy, Carter could have gotten hurt." Jack told them frowning deeply.

"Quit beating yourself up over it Jack. I didn't notice him either." Sam told him from behind his chair. She was coming back from the bathroom.

Jack scooted his chair over a bit so she could sit back down next to him to eat her dinner.

"How are you feeling Sam?" Daniel asked her.

"Ever eat so much pasta you feel like you will explode Daniel?" She asked him.

"Er, no, I can't say that I have." He admitted.

"Remember those potato pancake things Skaara makes?" Jack reminded him.

"Oh, yah, like that?"

"Way worse." Sam told him.

"Ouch." Daniel said, wincing.

"But you look beautiful." Jack told her honestly which earned him a blush.

"O'Neill is correct. You do indeed look beautiful while pregnant Samantha."

Sam sniffled. "Aw crap." She said as she dug around in her pocket for Jack's hankie that she'd kept.

Jack chuckled and gently stroked the back of her hand for a second.

"So what did you do about Anders?" Daniel asked them, ignoring the look Sam and Jack were exchanging.

"I suggested if he wished to remain living that he would keep O'Neill and Samantha's personal business to himself." Teal'c said smiling.

Jack chuckled. "Is that why he's been hiding from you?"

"I do not know what you mean O'Neill." Teal'c replied looking for all the world like butter wouldn't melt in his mouth.

"Thank you Teal'c." Sam told him grinning.

"It was my pleasure." He told her with a tilt of his head and went back to eating his beef tips and noodles.

Jack grinned.

_**AN:** Yah yah, I jumped ahead quite a bit the last 2 chapters. The focus isn't really the ins and outs of pregnancy. Plenty of other fics cover that._


	18. Live, Love

**Chapter 18 – Live, Love**

Sam sighed in contentment. Jack was gently kneading the bottoms of her sore and swollen feet. "Backrub next." He said.

"You don't need to-"

"For me Carter. My back is killing me." He told her with a mock frown that made her laugh.

When he was done he left her legs across his lap but scooted closer to her and rested a long fingered hand on her belly. Sam smiled gently at him when he leaned forward and kissed her belly as he stroked it. "I can't wait to meet you, little guy." He told her belly that twitched under his hand.

"I think he's excited to meet his father too."

"I wish I could have seen Kinsey's face when he found out Henry already knew what was going on." Jack said grinning, still stroking her belly.

Sam grinned. "I might know someone that could hack the security tapes." She suggested.

Jack chuckled and lowered his ear to her belly, barely pressing but enough to hear to him moving around. "As tempting as that sounds I don't actually _want_ to go to jail Carter."

"You would only go to jail if we got caught. It's for science." She told him with a mischievous grin.

"Your mommy is evil." He told her belly and kissed it again.

Sam watched him through lowered eyelids. He'd been coming over and checking on her at night. Most of the time he made her dinner or if she wasn't exhausted, they made dinner together. He left before she got ready for bed though.

After the Kinsey incident, their unspoken agreement that sleeping together might be a bad idea right now became a conversation they had at his house after hours. They both knew it would eventually happen and neither was opposed to the idea but they didn't want to put Daniel and Teal'c in the position of having to pick whose team to go with and they knew as a unit they were more effective than spread out individually.

Of course, the casual necking was still open to interpretation as to how far either of them were willing to go in that regard so they went home a lot of nights wound up and frustrated until Sam had taken matters into her own hands and mouth as it were an sent him home a lot more relaxed than he had been in quite a while. Or would have been if he could go to sleep without thinking about her hot wet mouth sliding up and down the hard shaft of his cock, which led him to finishing in the shower so he could sleep.

Jack had returned the favor the next night.

* * *

"I don't like you being alone at night."

"Sir, we've gone over this. I'm fine. If I go into labor, I'll call you. If I can't get you, I'll call Daniel or Teal'c."

They were sitting together in the commissary waiting for the rest of the team.

"George is cutting it close having us off-world this week." He grumped.

"It's a cake mission you can do in your sleep."

"Those are the ones I worry about." He admitted. "Is dad heading back yet?"

"I honestly don't know." She said with a shrug. "He knows when I'm due, but the Tok'ra might not understand him feeling like me going into labor is a priority.

"I know it's up to you but what did you finally tell Thor about why Loki did this in the first place?"

Sam moved some eggs around on her plate for a moment. "The irrational side of me, that is, mother to this baby first, wanted to tell him to stuff it up his-"

"Ah. Carter." Jack said in warning. He tried to have the team be a good example to the other SGC staff and not swear like Marines all the time. Arguably he'd heard Sam swear more in the last eight and a half months than he could put together for the entire six and a half years he'd known her.

"Anyway," she frowned at him. "I realize logically we shouldn't waste this opportunity for them so I'm going to let Thor take samples of the placenta and get a DNA sample from the baby but not until we can both be there to supervise." She told him.

"I'm still a little miffed that they lost track of the little guy." Jack told her.

"Well," Sam shoved a piece of banana in her mouth and talked around it. "You got off easy, sir." She told him and immediately felt bad when he choked on his mouthful of coffee.

Fortunately Teal'c had come up behind him and gently pounded on his back.

"Gah! I'm fine." Jack insisted. "Carter is just tying to kill me."

Sam's eyes twinkled as she suppressed a giggle.

"Don't you dare giggle, Carter."

"No sir." She said, her voice filled with mirth.

"Did I miss something?" Daniel asked as he walked up with his tray which had two cups of coffee and a Danish as big as his head.

"O'Neill believes Major Carter's humor is deadly." Teal'c told him.

"Razor sharp." Daniel said absently. "Why does George have us scheduled to go out so close to Sam's due date?"

"That's what I was saying!" Jack said triumphantly, gesturing wildly.

"Perhaps your worried pacing is annoying him." Teal'c suggested.

"What? I haven't been pacing."

"Jack, you've been acting like a caged lion for two weeks. Sam is fine. Right Sam?"

"I am Daniel, thank you. Go do your scouting mission and you'll probably be back right in time for me to go into labor sir." She said to Jack sweetly which earned her a Colonel face look that make her bite her lip not to giggle again.

"That used to work." He groused and started eating his oatmeal while he sulked. "Don't get any respect after you knock them up." He muttered so softly that only his table heard him but Teal'c's loud peal of laughter at Jack's expense had everyone in the commissary turning their heads.

Anders walked over with his tray and looked at them hopefully. Sam scooted closer to Jack to make room which made Daniel snort in amusement and the conversation drifted to the upcoming mission and Sam's current experiments.


	19. You can Do It

**Chapter 19 – You Can Do It**

"Major, are you all right?" Chloe asked her in concern. Sam didn't look so good.

Sam shook her head. "I think it's just Braxton Hicks again." She'd covered her discomfort when she had them around Jack because he fussed but Chloe just calmly accepted the situation.

"Ok. Dr. Frasier told me to keep an eye on the contractions should they get closer together." She reminded Sam.

"I know what Janet asked you to do." Sam huffed. She was so irritable right now she was even snapping at Chloe who was equal parts likeable and competent. Fortunately, Chloe informed her she had three sisters and nothing Sam did or said while pregnant was going to faze her in the slightest.

Sam idly kept track of the time between contractions and they were still erratic and mild but she noted that they were getting closer together than they had been. The guys weren't due back until tomorrow unless they hit a snag in which case they would come in hot.

Sam winced again.

"Those are getting closer together Ma'am. Should you go down to the infirmary?"

"I think I'll try walking around for a while actually Chloe. If anyone needs me, tell them I'll be back in about half an hour."

"Yes ma'am." She told Sam and went back to recording the results on Sam's current experiment.

* * *

"Are you all right Major?" Siler asked her. She'd gone to level sixteen and found him running routine diagnostics on the emergency bunker.

"I'm fine, it's just false labor." She said as she slowly breathed out through her teeth and tried not to wince. "Don't you have people to do that for you?"

Siler was Master Sergeant and normally his staff would handle running non-emergency diagnostics on backup systems. "I needed the peace and quiet." He admitted. "Not that I mind the company Ma'am." He said quickly. "Those have gotten closer together thince you got down here." He said of the contractions a few moments later. Comfortable with her, Siler didn't try to avoid words that exposed his lisp.

"Yah. I noticed that too." She admitted.

"Are you thertain those are Braxton Hicks contractions?"

Sam looked at him thoughtfully. "No, but they aren't even enough in length or time apart to worry just yet." She said reassuringly.

"Well, the infirmary is only five levels down tho it's a short ride if your water breaks." He told her smiling.

"That's reassuring." She said dryly and grinned at him then winced.

"Tham I really think you should go thee Janet." He told her firmly.

"I've got a week to go yet. It's just an unusually bad day that's all." She tried to tell him.

Sylvester however wasn't buying it. "Tham, I know you enjoy living dangerouthly, but Jack would probably kill me dead if I let you give birth in the auxiliary command thenter." He huffed at her but his eyes were kind and full of concern. "Pleath go get checked ma'am." He pleaded with her.

Sam sighed. "All right, if it will make you feel better."

"Thank you. I hope it's just falth labor Tham but it's better to be thafe than thorry."

"Ok, ok… I'm going." She told him chuckling a little as she left the room. "Bad as Jack and Daniel." He heard her lament in the hallway.

Sylvester grinned. It looked like Sam would be a mom in a couple days. He wondered how Colonel O'Neill would feel about being a father. He didn't know who the actual father was as the circumstances had involved the Asgard performing a very questionable not to mention unsanctioned experiment on the Major but he knew Jack pretty well. Well enough to know the man had strong feelings for his 2IC. She was already borrowing his BDUs because hers didn't fit this late in her pregnancy and Siler was fairly certain that was his t-shirt too. Sam's baby wouldn't grow up without a father in its life.

* * *

"Sam, what brings you in?" Janet asked her as she walked past to another patient."

"I went for a walk because I was having some Braxton Hicks but they got closer together and Siler made me come here." She admitted.

"Are you feeling any pain?" Janet asked her.

"Some, it's mild but, fine. Yes." She admitted.

"All right. You're a little early but still full term so it's nothing to worry about. First time labor can take a while so let's get you checked out and you can go wander or do some work until your water breaks." Janet told her.

"I really don't want my water to break in my lab Janet." Sam said pointedly.

"Well, if you want you can go pace around in one of the VIP rooms on twenty five." She suggested.

Sam glared at her a little.

"You're the one that said you don't want amniotic fluid on your lab equipment." Janet pointed out and Sam huffed. "Tough crowd." She decided. "When does SG-1 get back?"

"Tomorrow." Sam said, worry edging her voice.

"I'm sure they are on schedule." Janet told her reassuringly as she helped her lay back on the exam table so she could do a quick check. She knew Sam's real concern was Jack being there for the labor. Picking him for a labor partner had been a stroke of genius she'd planted in Daniel's head and then Sam's so she would ask him. The baby's father should be there in general but especially as Jack was likely to tear the walls down if he wasn't allowed to be anyway. She knew as long as she was there, Jack would follow orders to the letter when it came to the birth process. She was fairly certain had Sam been using a civilian doctor in a regular hospital Jack would have been a problem.

Hopefully if this labor went well, if they had a second child the old fashioned way Jack would be calmer. As it was she suspected if he was still off-world he was going to hit the gate at a run and plow through the halls of SGC like a linebacker to get to Sam this time.

Not that Janet could blame him. It was their first child together. Cassie had been angry at them when Jack and Sam had admitted they weren't getting married any time soon. It had taken a lot of patient explaining on Janet's part to get Cassie to understand that the people they were fighting would not hesitate to specifically target their child to hurt them if it got out that Jack was the actual father.

"Sam, you've lost your mucus plug." Janet told her.

"Is that what that was?" Sam said as though a mystery had been solved.

"Do you remember when it happened?"

"Yah. I was in the shower yesterday morning." She told her. What Sam didn't tell Janet was that she'd been in the shower with Jack feeling each other up. With all the water and their hands fondling every inch of each other she'd noticed the odd slither of goop down her leg but it wasn't much thicker than her discharge when she ovulated so she had shrugged it off and gone back to demonstrating her skills at oral manipulation on Jack's cock. He hadn't even noticed other than to groan when she'd paused for a short time.

"Well, you're about two centimeters dilated and your little guy is in position so it's just a matter of time. You've got several hours before you need to come back here though so go for a walk Sam. Come back if your water breaks or they get to be five minutes apart or last a minute or longer."

"I know Janet." Sam huffed.

"And stop being moody with me, young lady. I'm not the one that decided to go through with this. I'd have taken Thor up on the easy way out." Janet told her chuckling.

"And miss out on all this?" Sam asked her snarkily.

"Put your pants back on before you leave." Janet joked and left the room to go deal with her other patents.

Sam huffed a sigh. "You stay put." She told her stomach as she pulled on Jack's BDU pants and hooked the elastic loop Janet had sewn in for her across the button.


	20. Never Stop

Chapter 20 – Never Stop

"Do you want me to stay Major?" Chloe asked Sam at seventeen hundred.

"You don't have to. The contractions are still ten minutes apart. It could be a while." Sam told her and winced when another started.

"What time does SG-1 get back tomorrow?"

"Late morning thankfully." Sam said as she screwed up her face in annoyance at the sensation of having a band wrap around her middle and tighten.

"I can stay the night and keep you company if you want. It's not like I have anything to go home to other than a frozen dinner and reruns of _Happy Days_."

Sam chuckled. "Ok, if you're sure, I'll buy you dinner."

"Oh yah, only the best from our commissary."

"I think they have real food in the officers' lounge." Sam said laughing. They usually ate in the common room because it was open twenty four, which the officers' room was not and Daniel could snag them seats ahead of time. "Let's try there first."

"They let civilians in there?" she asked Sam, surprised.

"You're with an annoyed pregnant officer. Who's going to stop you exactly?" Sam pointedly asked her.

"Oh well good point." She said grinning.

* * *

Sam sat with a pained look on her face.

"Another one?" Chloe asked her.

"Yah. They don't seem to be getting closer together though. It's going to be a long night."

"Long night or just hoping your birthing coach gets back before you dilate much more?" Jack had wandered into the lab more than once to make Sam go to her birthing classes on time which was why Chloe assumed Sam had picked her boss in the first place.

"Some of both?" Sam asked as she toyed with her Jello.

"When my sister Angie had her first baby, her husband was in Germany. She yelled at him over the phone for two hours while my mom acted as stand-in birthing coach." Chloe told Sam conversationally.

"I really don't think that's an option in this case." Sam told her but smiled a little in appreciation. Chloe was trying to take her mind off her discomfort and she appreciated it.

"Probably not but it's still fun to imagine. Are you going to go back on SG-1 after they clear you medically?"

"I think so. I don't see any real reason not to. I've already changed all my paperwork so if something happens to me, it's handled."

Chloe nodded. "Janet told me you'd talked to the nanny she had for Cassie."

"Yah. SGC helped find her originally because of Janet's hours and she had sufficient clearance so she was an obvious first choice for uh… me too." Sam almost said 'us' and hoped Chloe hadn't noticed.

"Lucky she was available then."

"Not really. I think Colonel O'Neill bribed her." Sam admitted with a chuckle.

Chloe chuckled. "He's pretty invested. So are Daniel and Teal'c. I'm glad you have really good friends in your team and Janet. I don't know what I'd do if the same thing happened to me." All of Sam's team had gone out of their way to make sure she ate, went home at night on time, made her medical appointments, and felt like part of the team she wasn't currently on.

"It was a pretty hard decision, but the guys being supportive was a big part of why I decided to go through with the pregnancy. It might help the Asgard in the end, and I don't mind being a single mom really, I just wish Loki would have asked first instead of just assuming I'd be ok with the idea." Sam told her and rolled her eyes in annoyance as her hand fisted.

Chloe checked her watch. "Still ten minutes apart." She told her. "So did they ever tell you who the father is?"

"Yes but if I told you I'd have to kill you." Sam said with a smirk.

"You're kidding, right? Sam, you _are_ kidding?" Chloe said wide eyed which made Sam smirk.

"It's classified but yes, they told us."

"And it's… human?" She leaned forward and nearly whispered which made Sam chuckle as no one else was in the lounge but the two of them.

"Yes Chloe, he's very, very human. A little puerile but definitely human." Sam said with a chuckle.

"Wait, you know him?" She asked Sam, shocked. She expected it to be some random person but how would Sam know he was someone who was childish unless she knew who it was personally. "Was it Dr. Jackson? It wasn't Dr. Felger, was it?" Chloe asked in horrified fascination.

Sam laughed and shook her head. "No Chloe, it wasn't Daniel or Jay."

"Well, that's a relief." She said. "I mean, they are both great choices but wouldn't that make your friendship with them a little uncomfortable?"

Sam shook her head grinning. Felger, yes, because he was nice enough but he followed her like an eager puppy and Sam could only take so much of that. Eighteen years of him as a co-parent would force her to contemplate homicide. She imagined all of this would be much easier if it had been Daniel because then her feelings for her baby's father wouldn't be all mixed up in this nonsense. She could have happily co-parented with Daniel and not once worried about how it looked or struggled with a physical attraction to him.

"Probably yes, but it's not either of them." Sam assured the other woman.

Because Jack had been on his best behavior when visiting Sam's lab with Chloe there, she was unaware of how silly Jack's sense of humor genuinely was. She could probably pick the names of every screwball on base and not think to add his name to the list which made Sam chuckle inwardly. In reality, only her team and George really knew how big of a goofball Jack was. Outwardly he often came off as gruff and unapproachable on base. The first clue usually was the smart ass comments during briefings which she'd been introduced to on her first day giving her an oddly dissimilar experience with Jack than most of the rest of the base.

They talked about random stuff most of the rest of the night until they were both yawning uncontrollably and Chloe's hands jittered from her eighth cup of coffee.

"It's four AM." Chloe yawned checking her watch. "How are you feeling?" They had stopped actively timing Sam's contractions when they didn't seem to be speeding up any time soon.

"Last few were about eight minutes apart. I might have Walter check on the team's ETA, see if they can cut their trip short."

"The benefits of rank." Chloe yawned and waved sleepily at the head of SG-15 who wandered through.

Col. Pierce smiled fondly at Sam. "How are you feeling Major?" he asked Sam.

Sam winced as another contraction started. "This is less fun than I anticipated." She told the blond haired man who was grinning at her.

"My sister said the same thing two years ago. You'll be fine Sam. Jack should be back in about four to six hours for the birth." It was common knowledge on base that Jack was her birthing coach as Jack had been pretty excited about it and told anyone that would listen. Ben thought it was pretty cute that the older man was so excited for one of his best friend's baby. You'd think the guy was going to be a dad himself. "Try crossing your legs." He said with a chuckle.

"Not helpful Ben." She said laughing.

Ben shrugged. "My sister didn't think it was funny either." He said with a wink. "Hang in there. It will be over in a few hours and you get a baby out of it which is more than I got out of my last surgery."

Technically SG-1 had taken his team's mission, not that Ben minded considering the reasons. If one of his team was this close to birth, he wouldn't want a forward level mission either. Of course his entire team was guys so that might get a little weird. Arguably… not the weirdest thing around here. They dealt with aliens and megalomaniacal parasitic snakes daily. Major Carter being inseminated by an unknown entity was less weird than usual.

Sam chuckled at his joke. Ben's last surgery had involved removing shrapnel from his back and a chunk of his liver. Birth seemed slightly less invasive.

"Do you think they would let us borrow one of the bunk rooms to lie down for a bit?" Chloe asked Sam after Col. Pierce left with his morning coffee. "I'm beat."

Sam yawned. "Join the club," she said tiredly. "Let's go see if one of them is empty. Walter will know."

The two women tiredly headed for the command room in search of Walter who was picking up extra shifts with Sam not allowed technically to be in there in her current state.

"Ma'am, I was ordered to not let you come in here." Walter said absently from his seat.

"Are any of the berths unoccupied? Chloe and I have been up all night and we're beat."

"Why did you tell me that part? You know Colonel O'Neill is going to get it out of me." He said to her. Women that pregnant shouldn't be pulling all nighters.

Sam put a fist on the door jam and winced. "It wasn't by choice." She told him.

"Major, are you in labor?" Walter yelped.

"A little." Sam admitted. "Walter, what are you doing?" She asked as she watched him type in the dialing sequence for P3X-115.

"Recalling SG-1 ma'am."

"Walter, that really isn't necessary, I've been progressing very slowly all night." She tried to tell him.

"You've been in labor all night and you didn't tell me?" he yelped. "Colonel O'Neill is going to kill me."

"Why would he kill you? You had no way of knowing."

"Respectfully ma'am, I was strictly ordered to call them back if you went into labor."

"By who?" Sam demanded.

"By me Major. Go report to the infirmary. We'll discuss this after you give birth." George told her firmly as he came down the stairs from his office on twenty seven. "Dr. Angstrom, stay with her until Colonel O'Neill gets back, then go lie down. You have today off but I want you to rest before you attempt to drive home unless you want an airman to bring you home instead."

"No, I'm good here, thank you sir." She tugged on Sam's jacket sleeve that she'd rolled up a little to compensate for Jack's longer arms. "Come on Sam. Time to go."

"But I'm fine." Sam's voice trailed away as Chloe tugged her to the elevator bay.


	21. A Very Good Thing

**Chapter 21 – A Very Good Thing**

"Pack it up." Jack shouted to Daniel who was twenty solid yards away taking notes.

Anders started picking up things around camp and loading them back on the MALP. He'd overheard the conversation between Colonel O'Neill and Sergeant Harriman and knew there was zero chance his current CO was going to wait the last couple hours they were supposed to be here.

"Jack, I wasn't done."

"Fifteen can handle it. It's time to go."

"We've got three more hou-" and then he saw Jack's face. "Sam is in labor, isn't she?" He realized.

Jack nodded sharply as he started taking down a tent. Not trusting himself to reply. He needed to get home now.

Daniel who was nearly as worried about Sam as Jack was, packed up his equipment in record time and started helping Teal'c take down the other tent. The stoic Jaffa had said nothing the whole time, only efficiently rolled up their bedding and packed their belongings up and threw the packs outside in the dirt for Anders to stow in the MALP. Within an hour, there wasn't a speck of anything to indicate they had been there. Jack dialed home himself but in spite of the anxious set to his jaw waved everyone through the gate, took a last look around, then left the planet himself.

* * *

Jack was too impatient for the elevator and took the stairs two at a time up to level twenty one. Because of this he rushed to the back of the infirmary where one of the nurses pointed out Sam, out of breath and sweating, not to mention limping slightly as he swung around one of the corners too tight and strained his bad knee.

"Colonel O'Neill, you will get checked out medically before you step one step closer to Major Carter." Janet said firmly from three beds away.

"But-"

"No buts sir. This is especially important right now. Doctor Angstrom has things handled right now."

And Jack could see that Chloe did in fact have things under control as she quietly talked Sam through a contraction. Jack frowned but followed orders. "Make it quick. This is important Janet."

"Yes sir, I agree." Janet told him but the last thing Sam needed was exposure to an alien virus or worse.

A few moments later Jack was shrugging his t-shirt back on and had limped over to Sam's side. "Carter." He said casually as though walking in on your second in command giving birth to your child was just a usual day at the SGC.

"A little busy here sir." Sam said tightly, her eyes screwed shut as she gripped Chloe's hand tightly.

"Breath out Sam." Chloe told Sam softly as she rubbed her back.

"You've done this before." Jack said to Chloe.

"Yup. Two of my sisters have kids. One of them has a husband that keeps getting work assignments out of the country. I've been back up birth coach a few times." She replied and winced at Sam's grip on her hand.

"All right give me a hand here." Jack told Chloe once Sam's contraction had passed. "Help Sam lean forward."

Chloe did as she was asked and ignoring his protesting knee, Jack hiked a long leg behind Sam and settled behind her. "Comfy?" He asked Sam who already looked worn out.

"Do you really want me to answer that sir?" She told him waspishly.

"Easy Sam. I just wanted to make sure you were in a comfortable position before you rip my limbs off." He said softly in her ear which made her frown as a tear leaked out of the corner of her eye.

Without a word Jack wiped it away gently with his thumb and gave her a tender smile.

"Sir I'd like to apologize ahead of time about anything that comes out of my mouth over the next few hours." Sam told him

"Duly noted Carter. You can do this. We practiced."

She nodded.

"Chloe, could you have someone get Carter some ice chips and then you can go pull up a piece of bunk. You look as worn out as Carter."

"She stayed up all night with me sir." Sam told Jack sleepily.

"Thank you Chloe." Jack told her heartfelt.

"My pleasure Colonel. You ok Sam?"

"Yah. Thanks."

"Ok. Ice chips." She said and wandered off to find the ice maker.

"How are we doing here? What are you dilated at?"

"Sam is at six centimeters Colonel. She's been in labor for several hours so I want you to try to get her to rest now that you're here." She looked at Jack's position and noted his knee. "I'll be back with a cortisone shot for your knee. I can't guarantee it won't lock up anyway."

"Thanks Janet." Jack told her as she walked back out.

"What did you do to your knee sir?" Sam asked him in a worried voice.

"I'm fine Carter." He told her brushing her damp bangs away from her forehead. "Just twisted it a little going up the stairs. Why don't you lie back and try to get some rest in between your contractions, ok?" he said in a soothing voice.

"Easy for you to say." She told him sleepily.

"I know sweetheart. It will be over soon." He kissed her temple gently.

"Sir." She nearly sighed.

"Cameras are off. George's orders." He was gently rubbing her shoulders and had eased her back against his chest so she'd relax.

Sam glanced up and saw he was right. They had probably been off since Janet helped her into the hospital gown. "He didn't want proof if I ripped your arms out of their sockets." She said, chuckling softly.

"Or when you threaten to kill me if I ever did this to you again." Jack suggested softly, his nose close to her ear.

Sam snorted in amusement. "You should be so lucky." She told him.

Jack hummed in agreement.

Janet came back a few minutes later with Sam's cup of ice chips and checked Sam's dilation again. "You're doing great Sam. I sent Chloe to bed." She told them as another contraction started and Jack let her crush his hands in response. When she huffed out a sigh and eased her grip, Janet continued. "You are at eight centimeters now. I'll have you start pushing when you hit ten, all right?"

Sam nodded as Jack slipped an ice chip in her mouth.

"Are you doing all right back there Colonel?"

"Peachy Doc. You?" Jack quipped. He was now just as sweaty as Sam was and had stretched his leg as much as he could and still support Sam's sides.

Janet chuckled. "Neither of you is going to get any more rest I'm afraid. Sam is now dilating fairly quickly so it's going to be time to push in about twenty minutes or so."

"Good. I'm sick of this already." Sam snarled. She narrowed her eyes when she felt Jack silently chuckling behind her.

"She's a little out of sorts." Jack told Janet and then grunted in pain when Sam deliberately ground her butt into his crotch in a painful way. "That wasn't nice Carter." He hissed at her.

"I am not out of sorts." Sam huffed.

"Could have fooled me." Janet said.

"I need those for later." He told Sam quietly.

Sam harrumphed but another contraction started and they focused together on getting her through it while Janet left to attend other patents.

"I'm so tired Jack." She told him softly. She'd turned her head to rest it on his chest, one arm was slung over his leg.

"I know but you're almost there Carter. I can't wait to meet the little guy." Jack told her, his voice a low soothing rumble against her back.

"Me either." She admitted softly. "What do you think he'll be like?"

"You hopefully." Jack said with a chuckle and hugged her gently.

"I was thinking a mix would be nice." She said sleepily.

"Ok." He agreed and ran his fingers gently down her arm.

"That's nice." She told him tiredly.

"I love you Sam." He told her softly enough that even if the cameras had been on it wouldn't have been picked up.

"Hell of a time to tell me that Jack." She said chuckling but her chuckle turned to a wince as another contraction started.

"Slow breaths." He murmured and endured the death grip she had on his hands. "Blow out. You're doing great Sam. You can do this."

"This sucks. Next time I'm taking Thor up on his offer."

"Next time?" Jack asked her chuckling.

"You know damn well how dad is going to feel about me only having one kid. You're stuck now." She told him as she chewed on some ice.

"I'm holding you to that Sam."

"I wouldn't hold anything to me right now. I'm sweaty and leaking questionable fluids."

Jack laughed and hugged her. "That's what showers are for."

"Great. You're going to help." She told him as another contraction started.


	22. Inspire Powerful Actions

**Chapter 22 – Inspire Powerful Actions**

"How is she?" Daniel asked anxiously. He and Teal'c had waited outside the infirmary for word that Sam and the baby were both ok. Janet had sent nurses out with periodic updates for a pacing Daniel and a stoic Teal'c who wore a stormy look on his face because Janet had not let them stay in the infirmary proper knowing they would crowd the bed and this was a personal moment between Jack and Sam.

Jack had walked out looking haggard and dazed but at Daniel's question his face split into a beaming grin. "Carter is a real trooper. Isaac was born forty five minutes ago, seven pounds, six ounces. Looks just like his mom - dimples and all."

Teal'c dragged Jack into a hug. "Congratulations, my friend."

Jack laughed tiredly.

"We knew. Apparently Janet and George decided to play _Twinkle Twinkle Little Star_ over the PA when he made an appearance." Daniel told Jack, joining in on the hugging.

"That's what that was? Isaac was so loud all I could hear was him." Jack admitted.

"The whole base cheered, Jack." Daniel told him. "If you want a shower, I'd use the one in the infirmary. If you try to use the locker room one you won't get back here very quickly."

"Yah." Jack said tiredly. "Shouldn't be gone too long in case Carter needs me." He said, a vague look in his eyes.

"I will go check on Major Carter." Teal'c told Jack and Daniel.

"I'll go grab you some clothes Jack. Go grab a shower. I'll be right back." Daniel told him and took off down the hallway for the elevators.

"I guess I'll go take a shower." Jack said vaguely and Teal'c guided him lightly by the elbow to the infirmary showers before heading for Sam's bedside.

"How are you Major Carter?" Teal'c asked a worn out Sam from the end of her bed. They had removed the one used for the birthing process and brought her a proper gurney while one of the nurses helped her rinse off the worst of the grime of birth.

Sam smiled at Teal'c sleepily. "Really tired Teal'c. But happy."

"That is excellent news Samantha." He said with a short bow.

Isaac, who was wrapped in Sam's arms, took that moment to let out a small protesting squall.

"Teal'c, meet Isaac James Carter." She said formally but smiled.

"I am pleased to meet you, young Carter." And he stressed the name with a smile and a wink. It was Teal'c's opinion that young Isaac would not long remain a Carter but take on his true given name in the near future.

"Where are the guys?" Sam asked sleepily.

"Daniel Jackson is seeing to O'Neill's fresh clothing and O'Neill is getting a much needed shower. He smelled." Teal'c told her.

Sam chuckled softly. "I was too busy to notice." She admitted and Teal'c bowed his head in acknowledged amusement.

"Are visitors welcome yet?" George asked with a small smile as he popped his head in the door.

"You sir, are always welcome." Sam told him. "Isaac, meet Uncle George." She said grinning as she turned her son towards Hammond so he could see him better.

"Welcome to the world, little fellow. A lot of people are very happy to see you. Especially your parents." George told the infant and Sam looked at him in surprise.

"Cameras are still off Sam. Birth is a private process as is breast feeding." He told her with a wink. "And I thought you and Jack might like the option of speaking freely until Janet clears you to go home." He admitted.

"Thank you sir." Sam told him softly.

"No thanks needed Major. It's not every day one of my people gives birth to the hopeful savior of an entire society."

"Hopefully they got it right on the first try because I don't think my arms can take that again for a while." Jack admitted, coming up behind George, freshly showered and his hair still damp and sticking up on end.

"Jack, this is going to get really awkward if I have to explain a second baby and you aren't married." George told him.

"Then the Asgard better start working faster at kicking Goa'uld ass sir."

"I'm all for that son. I'll leave you in peace. I just wanted to offer my congratulations. I'll be back down after you both have had some rest."

"Thank you sir." Jack told him with a grin and shook his CO's hand.

George shook his head and laughed.

"I know you won't leave sir, so I'm having an orderly bring in a cot for you. There's not enough room for a second bed even with all the equipment out of here." Janet told them as she reentered the room.

"It's fine Janet. I could sleep on a pile of ma-tooks or whatever they're called right now."

Sam bit back a smile.

"Sam, how are you feeling honey?"

"Sore." Sam admitted.

"That's to be expected. You just gave birth. Colonel O'Neill can help you to the bathroom when you need it." She said to them both and Jack nodded. Of course he would.

"Both of you try to get some rest. You've had a very long day."


	23. Come True

**Chapter 23 – Come True**

"C'mon."

"Jack, we talked about this. I'll be fine." She reassured him.

"I'm not worried about you." Jack muttered.

"You may as well Sam. He's just going to sit at home fretting if you don't." Daniel told her.

"Daniel Jackson is correct." Teal'c told Sam as he walked by with the bottom half of the detachable car seat from his SUV. "O'Neill will sit at home and fret."

"But I'll be fine Jack." Sam assured him, her hand on his free arm. Their son snuggled against his chest in the other.

"Sam, you can't tell me you got any sleep on base."

As the base infirmary wasn't any quieter than any other hospital at night, Sam couldn't argue the point. "I'll sleep when he sleeps." She assured him.

"I'm not going to sleep though." He huffed and tried a different tactic. "You need rest Sam. I can't feed him but I can change diapers and burp him and handle bathing him." While he gave her this list, his warm brown eyes bore into hers softly. He needed her to let him do this. "And while I do that you can let your body heal instead of having to get up every few minutes to attend a fussy baby." He lowered his voice to a soft purr. "Please Sam? I really want to do this for you."

Sam got lost in his eyes for a moment. She knew he was using his love for her against her but she was unable to resist how sweet and gentle his expression was while he held their son. "Oh, all right. You can stay." She caved.

Jack put Isaac in her arms and pumped a fist in the air. "Yes!" He exclaimed "I'll be right back, just gotta get some stuff out of the van." He said gleefully.

Sam looked after him mystified.

"O'Neill was deeply hopeful that you would allow him to help care for your son Samantha."

"Yah, I guess so." Sam said confused but amused as well.

The rumble of Jack's truck could be heard through the screen door and a few minutes later Jack walked in with Jacob in tow.

"I got here as quickly as I could princess." Jake told her and leaned forward to kiss Sam on the forehead as he handed Jack his keys. "Welcome to the family Isaac." He said with a grin at the small bundle in her arms. "May I?"

"Of course dad." She told him and handed the baby over to his grandfather.

Jack stood behind Jacob, beaming down at his son.

"You're going to look like your father." Jake said and chuckled. The baby blinked up at him and let out a little squeak. Jacob grinned. "Daniel and I are going to go pick up dinner and then we'll all get out of your hair Sam."

"Aren't you going to stay dad?" Sam asked him confused.

"Oh I'll be back but I'm going to sleep at Jack's. The guest bed is more comfortable there for starters, and it's not in the basement." He said with a wink at Jack.

"At least she's not smuggling a Stargate down there anymore." Jack joked.

"Are you two done?" Sam asked them.

"I don't know. Are we Jack?"

"We could be. Depends on a few… permutations." Jack said grinning.

"I can kick you both out if you want."

"Ah, Sam, I'm not sure you can really kick out the grandfather and father of your kid day one for teasing you." Daniel said.

"Shut up Daniel." Jack, Sam and Jacob said together in unison which made them all laugh.

"I'll be right back with dinner. Daniel, warm up the van. Teal'c, go put that stuff away." Jacob ordered the large Jaffa.

Sam stood there mystified that her father had suddenly taken over and that Jack and her dad had joined forces to get their way.

"What just happened?" She asked Teal'c as she followed him into the kitchen.

"General Carter and O'Neill have bonded over their mutual love for their child and grandchild Samantha. You are, as O'Neill would say, screwed." He told her with an amused look.

"Great." Sam said under her breath. "That's just great."

* * *

It had been a long night. Jack had been true to his word. The only time Sam had to get up was when Isaac had needed feeding and the middle of the night when she'd had to change her pad as she was bleeding like a stuck pig in her opinion. He'd made sure she slept a good portion of the night and was now snuggled against her back with one hand wrapped protectively against her belly the way he had the last month while she was still pregnant and unwilling to chance her being alone at night.

Sam smiled softly. A large portion of her wanted things to stay exactly like this and for the moment it could because she was sore and in no shape for anything even remotely resembling a love life.

George had taken counter measures and was actively preventing any spying on them including one of Siler's hand picked people sitting outside blocking any opportunity of photos or audio tracking of her house. George had been furious about the breach in security and informed the president that if he caught anyone else covertly recording his people he would have the AF's shoot first and ask questions later.

A warm pair of lips started nuzzling her between her shoulder blades. "I know you're awake Carter." He told her in a rumbly groggy early morning voice that made her body respond in spite of being sore all over.

"Good morning." She told him amused. His morning scruff was tickling her back and she twitched a little in response. She felt his lips smiling against her skin. His arm pulled her a little tighter against his bare chest.

"Go get a shower, I'll make us some coffee." He told her and the warm arm around her left along with the chest she'd been enjoying the heat of. Sam rolled over on her back and looked up at him. He hadn't gone far.

Jack brushed his lips across hers and left.


	24. Destiny

**Chapter 24 – Destiny**

"So?" Jack drew out the word in extreme interest.

They had turned over the placenta and umbilical cord to the Asgard the day of Isaac's birth. Sam and Jack having agreed to this ahead of time. They had however, insisted Sam be given a couple weeks to heal physically from the trauma of childbirth before Thor examined Isaac's genetic makeup.

When Kinsey had shown up, months ago. George, by prearranged decisions, had alerted Thor to listen in. They had trusted Thor to show up at the best moment having impeccable timing as usual.

"I find infant humans fascinating O'Neill. They are so very fragile." Thor told him. Jack was currently snuggling said infant against his chest.

"They are Thor, and human babies don't thrive without direct physical contact with other humans. They have been known to die from lack of touch and affection." Sam told Thor.

"This is why you objected to my people raising him ourselves." Thor surmised.

"Well yes, and that this is _our_ baby." Sam said.

Jack flashed her a soft grin. Her momma bear side kind of did it for him.

"I will make note of that in our files should the topic come up again. We do not expect to have orphans to deal with but if we do, we shall be sure to… cuddle them." Thor told Sam who gave him an amused half smile.

"This is all well and good buddy but what did you find out? Is he going to help you here?" Jack said, waving his free hand vaguely while he frowned down at Thor looking vaguely perplexed.

"Sadly. No." Thor told them.

"No?" Jack said surprised.

"Isaac is a genetic leap forward O'Neill, but not enough of one to be our solution even though your particular combination of genetics was the right choice. Perhaps when he is an adult if he consents to another attempt." Thor said. What he didn't tell Jack and Sam was his time as well as the rest of his people's time was running out. There would not be another chance in all likelihood. Isaac Carter O'Neill would be a genetic advancement for the humans of earth, but he would not be the solution Thor was looking for.

"I'm so sorry Thor." Sam said and she genuinely was. Whatever trouble the Asgard had caused Jack and herself personally, she'd genuinely hoped their son would be the salvation Thor was looking for.

"As am I, Major Carter."

"Look, if there's anything we can do…" Jack told Thor.

Thor looked up at Jack and smiled slightly. "You both have done more than enough. More than should have been asked of you.

"It was nothing… really." Jack said, with a dismissive wave of his hand that Sam snorted at. Might have been nothing for him. He had the easy part.

"As this has not gone the way we hoped, I hope you can understand that I am needed elsewhere. Should you need me, feel free to use the communication device again." Thor said to them both.

"Stay safe Thor." Sam told him.

"And you as well Major Carter." He said kindly and with a flash, the three of them found themselves in the briefing room they had left a couple of hours before.

"Well people?"

Jack sat down and looked pensive. George tilted his head and gave Sam a questioning look.

"Even combining our genetics, it wasn't enough of a leap. He says perhaps when Isaac is an adult if he consents to more experiments they would try again." Sam told him.

"Carter."

"Sir?"

"I don't think he has enough time to wait for that." Jack said sadly.

"I don't think he does either sir." Sam agreed equally sadly.

"I'm sorry to hear that." George agreed. "What will they do?"

"He didn't say." Jack said thoughtfully and buried his face in his son's fuzzy light brown hair.

George sighed and looked down but he glanced at two of his best people. Her fingers rested lightly on his shoulder in support, knowing how hard Jack was taking the realization that a being who Jack deeply liked and respected wasn't going to be alive when his son was an adult. But that was how life was sometimes. Thor was very old. They couldn't expect him to live forever, could they?

Eventually this war would end. One of them would probably move on to another assignment. They would most likely get married and if it was while Sam was sill fairly young, possibly have another child together.

But right now they had a world to defend like it or not.

"If that's all people, you're free to go back home. Jack, I expect to see you on base, Monday morning sharp. Sam, you can resume light duty when you feel up to it."

"Thank you sir." They both said and left the room in a pensive mood.

_**AN: **__As I noted at the beginning this kind of wrote itself and leaves more questions than answers. _

_The answer, is, whatever you want it to be._


End file.
